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THE POE BUST. 

In Position in tine Library. 



THE UNVEILING 



BUST OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 



IN THE 
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 



OCTOBER THE SEVENTH, 

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY -NINE, 



Being an account of Poe's connection with the University of Virginia, 

the Origin and History of the Poe Memorial Association, 

and the Exercises attending the LTnveiling of 

Zolnay's Bust of Poe. 



COMPILED AND EDITED 

By CHARLES W. KENT, 

President of the Association. 



PUBLISHED BY J. P. BELL COMPANY, 
LYNCHBURG, VA. 



^ 






'01 



TO 

POE'S FRIENDS AND THE ADMIRERS OF HIS GENIUS 

IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED THIS 

PERMANENT RECORD 

OF 

HIS ALMA MATER'S TRIBUTE TO HIS MEMORY 

ON THE 

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH. 



^9'^ 



PREFACE 



IN the preface, however tlie word may imply the contrary, the 
author or editor does not look forxcard to the unmade book, 
perhaps even without plan and formless, but upon his work well- 
nigh completed. He is, almost certainly, dissatisfied with the 
results, but at least he is not called upon to undergo again the 
anxiety as to its processes. With a sense of relief, if not of 
rejoicing, he dwells now upon the labor and experiences through 
which he has passed, and breathes a sigh, instinct with hope, 
that the book may not utterly disappoint the expectations of 
those who have wished for its appearance. Fortunately the petty 
annoyances, the things that went amiss, the delays that begot im- 
patience, and, worse than all else, the lukewarmness that chilled 
enthusiasm, are lost sight of in the pleasure and gratitude with 
which it is recalled and recorded that there were helping hands, 
cheering words, and hearty cooperation. 

In a general felicitation of all the members of the Poe Memo- 
rial Association upon the attainment of their first and most im- 
portant object — the presentation to the University of Virginia of 
a bronze bust of Edgar Allan Poe — no apology is needed for 
expressing here our especial thanks to Mr. W. A. Clark, Jr., not 
so much for his financial aid, which was generous, as for his 
thoughtfulness in relieving us of all anxiety by promising long 
beforehand that our plans should not fail for want of means. 

To Mr, Hamilton W. Mabie, whose magnificent address forms 
the most valuable feature of this small volume, as well as to Mr. 
Wilson, Mr. Reade, and others who took part in our programme, 
and to the hundreds all over the country that followed our move- 
ment with interest and found pleasure in our success, we express 
our appreciative recognition of their part in making October the 
Seventh, Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-nine, the most memorable 
day in our literary annals. 

Upon the Officers and the Executive Committee of the Asso- 
ciation fell the burden of the work, but this burden was cheerfully 



6 PREFACE. 

borne, for theirs was a labor of love, finding its full reward in the 
significant part they had in what has not inaptly been styled the 
" Poe Revival." The fruits of this revival have not all been 
garnered. Our distinguished Secretary, Professor James A. Har- 
rison, is now engaged upon a Critical Edition of Poe's Works. 
This edition, with its peculiar merits and its scholarly accuracy in 
all details, will, it is hoped, leave so little to be done hereafter 
that it will be recognized at once as the final critical edition. Our 
Association, besides the honor it derives from the work of one of 
its charter members, will have special interest in the biography 
that will retell, and with sympathy, the story of our Poet's life, 
and particularly of his connection with the University of Vir- 
ginia. 

In the preparation of this volume free use has been made of 
the Historical Sketch of the Association written by Mr. James 
W. Hunter, Jr., for Corks and Curls of 1900, and of the Account 
of the Unveiling Exercises, edited by Mr. A. I. Miller for the 
Alumni Bulletin for November, 1899. To both of these gentle- 
men, and to all others who have directly or indirectly been of 
service, grateful acknowledgment is here made. But my constant 
companion in the making of this book has been my assistant, Mr. 
Carol M. Newman, from whom I would not withhold a formal 
avowal of peculiar gratitude for his intelligent and sympathetic 

aid. 

Charles W. Kent. 

Mai/ 1, IDOL 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Poe's Student Days AT THE University OF Virginia, 9 

History of the Poe Memorial Association, 24 

George Jitlian Zolnay, 28 

The Unveilin(; Exercises, 32 

Poe's Place in American Literature, 38 

The Memorial Poem, 60 

The Evening Exercises, 62 

In the Ragged Mountains, 83 

Appendix I. — Session of 1826 87 

Appendix II. — -Matriculation of 1826, 88 

^Vppendix III. — Poe Memorial Association, 91 

Appendix IV. — Poe Library at the LTniversity of Virginia, ... 93 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Poe Bust in Position, Frontiapkce 

Facsimile of Matriculation Book, 10 

Poe's Eoom on West Range, 13 

Schedule of Lectures, .14 

In the Ragged Mountains, 16 

Excelled in Latin, 20 

Excelled in French, 21 

Facsimile of Faculty Record, 22 

George Julian Zolnay', 28 

Facsimile of Faculty Record, 37 

Hamilton W. Mabie, 38 

Invitation, 62 

The Ragged Mountains, 83 

Signatures of Famous Virginians, 87 



POE'S STUDENT DAYS AT THE UNIVERSITY 
OF VIRGINIA. 



SEVENTY"-FIVE years ago Edgar Allan Poe became a 
student of the University of Virginia. His entire sojourn 
iiere lies between St. Valentine's Day and Christmas, while his 
connection with the University covered exactly ten months and a 
day. There was at the time nothing strange, surprising, or even 
exceptional in his career, which would readily have been merged 
into hundreds of others equally uneventful and been forgot but 
for his subsequent fame. But this renown has carried the Uni- 
versity's name to remote lands and made every incident of his 
student days, however insignificant in itself, of universal interest. 
Indeed, any fact in Poe's life is of value in enabling us to deter- 
mine his erratic orbit and in furnishing ns substantial material 
out of which imagination may make real the full picture of liis 
perplexing life. 

There was displayed by his earliest biographers a singular and 
perverse facility in creating for him an incongruous and impossible 
University experience, but the later students of his life here have 
striven zealously to discover and to disclose every fact. This 
they have done frankly, but not always with a due appreciation 
of the significance of these facts, and certainly not always with 
full sympathy for Poe himself. 

Among the investigators of his University period Mr. Douglas 
Shirley {University of Virginia 3Iagazine, March and April, 1880) 
and Mr. Schuyler Poitevent {idem, December, 1897) were most 
successful in adding to our limited store of knowledge. The facts 
furnished by them and by earlier students have, as far as possible, 
been verified as a basis for this sketch, which, however, contains 
other material, procured by a minute examination of all Univer- 
sity records and by personal interviews. 

The University of Virginia, for many years lingering an unfin- 
ished creation in the fruitful brain of its prescient founder, Thomas 
Jefferson, was so far completed in 1825 that on Monday, March 



10 POE MEMORIAL. 

the Seventh, the first session began, but without ceremony or 
celebration. There were fifty students present on that day, and 
during the whole session, which closed on December the Fifteenth, 
there were one hundred and sixteen students. 

The session was peculiarly stormy. The professors, who were 
mainly English and seem to have been unpopular because of that 
fact, were the victims of unpardonable disrespect. The faculty- 
meetings in the first session, when so many matters of policy 
should have engaged the attention of those called to direct aright 
the infant University, were largely given up to disciplining stu- 
dents guilty of the use of ardent and vinous liquors, or of gam- 
bling. There were open outbreaks as well as personal rebellion 
against rules. The University seemed in imminent peril from 
within, because of the unrestrained wildness, rampant disrespect, 
and obstreperous conduct of a body of immature young men, who 
mistook this new liberty for license. 

The second session began on February the First, 1826. On 
that day (see Appendix II) thirty-four students matriculated. 
After that they came in day by day, until by Tuesday, February 
14th, one hundred and thirty-one students had matriculated. On 
the 14th five students entered, among them Edgar Allan Poe, who 
was No. 136 out of a total enrollment for the session of 177. 

In the matriculation book, at the very bottom of the page, as 
shown in the cut, the line runs : 



K) 



Remarks 



Edgar A. Poe | 19 Jan: 1809 | John Allen | Eiclmiond 



Unfortunately this is not in Poe's handwriting. The lists of 
students for both 1825 and 1826 were neatly copied out by the 
same hand that wrote the formal pledge required of all students 
in 1827 and since that day. Presumably the copyist was Mr. 
Brockenborough, the Proctor. The blank space under Remarks 
is itself of interest, and is prima facie evidence that Poe did not 
at any time during the session sever his connection with the Uni- 
versity, for comments in this column show that of the 177 stu- 



POE MEMORIAL. 1] 

dents of the session six withdrew, three were suspended, three 
dismissed and three expelled, but no one of these records stands 
against Poe. 

According to the unimpeached testimony of a college-mate and 
warm personal friend, Thomas Goode Tucker, Poe roomed at first 
on the Lawn with Miles George, of Richmond. There is no 
evidence of any kind to show the location of this Lawn room. 
Miles George (born September 17, 1807), the son of Bird George, 
of Richmond, Virginia, matriculated on February 3, 1826, enter- 
ing the classes of Professors Long and Key, and remained at the 
University two sessions. While he does not seem to have been 
engaged in any of the disturbances or guilty of any misdemeanors, 
he was not reported by any of his professors among those who 
excelled in their examinations. He afterwards graduated from 
the Medical College of Pennsylvania. 

Early in the session Poe and George had some difficulty. The 
cause of this youthful disagreement is unknown, and in all proba- 
bility was not at all serious. The result, however, of the discord 
was a fisticuff in a field near the University, after wdiich the par- 
ticipants shook hands and parted in peace. George remained in 
possession of the Lawn room and Poe moved to West Range. 

If remaining in possession of the territory formerly occupied 
is good ground for inference as to the victor, then Poe was proba- 
bly whipped by his older companion. Perhaps, however, Poe's 
withdrawal was merely one of the conditions of their amicable 
settlement and does not point to his defeat. 

It is true that Poe was just past seventeen, but his athletic 
record was already well established. He was " rather short of 
stature, thick and somewhat compactly set, but very active, being 
quite an expert in athletic and gymnastic arts." It may spoil a 
poetic illusion to add that "he was bow-legged and walked 
rapidly, with a certain jerkiness in his hurried movements." His 
greatest athletic achievement dates from June, 1825, when he swam, 
under a hot sun, from Ludlam's Wharf to Warwick, a distance 
of six miles, against a very strong tide. "Any swimmer in the 
falls in my days," says Poe, " would have swum the Hellespont 



12 POE MEMORIAL. 

and thought nothing of the matter." This feat on the James, 
which is duly attested, was indeed remarkable for a boy, and in a 
measure justifies his boast that he could swim the English Channel 
from Dover to Calais. But Poe's prowess was not confined to 
swimming. He had the reputation of being the best young boxer 
in Richmond, and if in fights he ever had to exercise the valorous 
discretion of flight he could readily have outstripped most con- 
testants, for his swiftness in running was noted among his com- 
panions. His athletic record in field sports, however, would have 
been made in the running broad jump, for during his early life, 
probably here at the University, he jumped 21 feet 6 inches on a 
level, with a running start of twenty yards. His chief competi- 
tor in athletic contests here was one of the Labranche brothers, of 
New Orleans, who had been educated in France and trained in 
physical exercise. But the sad-faced Poe took his sports seriously 
and exhibited little boyish enthusiasm or spirit in his triumphs. 

On April 29th, 1826, William Matthews, formerly a cadet of 
West Point, was ''allowed the use of the Gymnasium [then where 
the Chairman's office now is] for the purpose of giving instruc- 
tion upon military tactics to such of the students as may choose 
to be drilled. Mr. Matthews is held responsible to the faculty 
for all riots, or other disturbances of the peace, happening during 
his attendance upon the students composing his class." The first 
Physical Director proved worthy of his appointment and so com- 
mended himself to the faculty that later in the session he was 
assigned one of the elliptical rooms in the Rotunda. Still later 
in the session, when his name was mentioned in connection with 
a local scandal, he was not only completely exonerated, but the 
faculty took occasion, officially, to commend him. As his class 
was not officially recognized, there is extant no list of his students 
and no account of their progress, but it is natural to suppose that 
among those who took particular interest in his course was the 
ex-Lieutenant of the Junior Volunteers of Richmond. 

But we have wandered too far from his matriculation and the 
early experiences of the session. Poe, after the difficulty with 
George, moved to West Range. There was for some while a tradi- 



POE ]\rEMORIAL. 13 

tion here that his room was No. 17, but no evidence of any kind 
can be found for this number. On the other hand, Mr. Tucker's 
confident assertion that it was 13 is in part confirmed by the 
memory of Mr. Jesse Maury, who still lives, in honored old age, 
near the University. Mr. Maury's memory goes back some years 
prior to 1826, and still holds securely the important events of 
that year. During that session young Maury, who was never a 
student at the University, was put in charge of his father's team- 
sters, who were frequently employed in hauling wood to Conway's 
boarding-house. The wood-pile was just back of the block on 
West Range, containing rooms 5 to 15 (odd numbers). This 
block was then known as Rowdy Row. It was in this Row, 
beyond any doubt in Mr. Maury's mind, that Poe roomed. Mr. 
Maury recalls vividly the charcoal decorations on his walls and 
his marvellous penmanship, of which Poe was then so proud. 
Poe used to entertain himself and his friends by writing on a bit 
of paper of fixed size the largest possible number of words. 
These independent reminiscences of Mr. Maury are themselves 
confirmed, for John Willis tells of Poe's talent for drawing and of 
the crayon sketches on his walls ; and Thomas Boiling relates that 
he once found Poe engaged in copying on the ceiling of his dor- 
mitory an interesting plate from an English edition of Byron's 
Poems. 

With Poe now domiciled for the session in 13 West Range, we 
can turn to his occupations. The round of lectures — lectures — 
lectures, of which Dr. Emmet complained, had begun, and Poe, 
on the day he entered, had to elect what courses of lectures he 
would attend. Poe had shown at Stoke-Newington, in England, 
as well as under Masters Clarke and Burke in Richmond, not 
only an aptitude and fondness for literary and linguistic studies, 
but also an unusual skill in construing Latin and in 'capping' 
Latin verses. In addition, he had exhibited a marked facility in 
French conversation. It was natural, then, that Latin and French 
should be among the subjects elected. The matriculation book 
shows that he took the classes of Professors Long and Blaetter- 
man. The announcement for 182G thus outlines these courses: 



14 POE MEMORIAL. 

"In the school of Antient Laiii^uages are to be taught the higher 
grade of the Latin and Greek hvnguages, the Hebrew, rhetoric, 
belles-lettres, antient history and antient geography. In the 
school of Modern Languages are to be taught French, Spanish, 
Italian, German, and the English language, in its Anglo-Saxon 
form; also modern history, and modern geography." It seems 
almost preposterous to suppose that any student would be 
required to pursue work in all these branches, yet we find 
that Henry Tutwiler at the end of the session is reported as 
having excelled in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, Span- 
ish, and mathematics, while Gessner Harrison, whom Mr, Tucker 
mentions with Tutwiler among the "hard students," excelled in 
Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, and medicine. It may, 
then, be true that Poe was a member of the classes in Greek, 
Latin, French, Spanish and Italian, though there is no mention 
of him in connection with Greek. 

Of his class-room career we know little except that the librarian, 
Mr. Werten baker, a fellow-student, avers that Poe was tolerably 
regular in his attendance upon the French, Italian, and Spanish 
classes, and was a successful student. He was publicly com- 
mended for a verse translation from Tasso. It is easy to believe 
that, with his previous training, he had little difficulty in keeping 
up with classes composed of young men, for the most part, with 
far less preparation than his. And, even if he were not a close 
student, he possessed, in addition to his training, a quick eye and 
an alert mind that made the perilous process of " reading ahead " 
less hazardous for him. According to the schedule of lectures 
made out by Mr, Jefferson in his own handwriting (see cut), Poe's 
classes came between 7:80 and 9:30 each day of the week, includ- 
ing Saturday, After the lectures were over, there was the long 
day and the evening hours at his disposal. How did he pass his 
time? 

To proceed gradually from studies to practices far removed 
therefrom, it is in place to mention first that he spent much time 
in the library. Mr. Tucker, who enjoyed his intimate friendship, 
gives a pleasing account of their reading together Lingard and 



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CO "^ 

:!; a 

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I -n 

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3- m 

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POE MEMORIAL. 15 

Hume, their favorite historians. In view of the fact that Poe's 
writings have been declared not immoral, but rtnmoral, it is inter- 
esting to note that Lingard had encountered the censure of strict 
Protestants, and Hume, by his philosophy, fallen under the tem- 
porary obloquy of all Christians. But these young readers turned 
willingly from history to English poetry from Chaucer to Scott. 
From their chosen poets each copied for the other his own favorite 
passages. 

During the early part of the session Central college building 
(Pavilion VII, West Lawn, now occupied by Professor Noah K. 
Davis) was used as a meeting place of the Board of Visitors, and 
for a library and reading room. The library was in the front 
room up-stairs. But the Rotunda had been begun in the spring of 
1823, and on November 5, 1824, was under roof and so far 
advanced that it was used for the famous entertainment ffiven 
Lafayette. In October, 1825, Jefferson reports that the circular 
room, destined for the receipt of books, had been pressed forward, 
and " we trust will be ready for them." In October, 1826, Madi- 
son, the Rector, says : " The library room in the Rotunda has 
been nearly completed and the books put in it." Exactly when 
this transfer of the books was made it is impossible to ascertain, 
and so we are forced into some uncertainty in picturing Poe in 
the Library. He may have read in the somewhat restricted quar- 
ters of the upper room in the " Old Library," as Pavilion VII was 
called as late as the forties, and he was certainly a frequenter of 
the large and meagrely supplied circular room in the Rotunda as 
it existed before the fire of 1895. 

Poe not only used the books in the Library, but, according to 
Mr. Werteubaker, the Librarian, borrowed during the session the 
following books : Rollin, Histoire Aucienne ; Robertson's Amer- 
ica ; Marshall's Washington ; Voltaire, Histoire ParticuliSre ; Du- 
fief. Nature Displayed. 

The class-room and the library could not fully meet the 
requirements of his retiring and reflective nature. Love of moody 
solitude led him on long and lonesome walks in the Ragged 
Mountains, where he was surely a "first adventurer" in many a 



16 POE MEMORIAL. 

secluded dell. From these long walks, or rather on them, he 
found material for weird tales, written out and read to some boon 
companions, and, if favorably received, repeated perhaps to a larger 
audience, spellbound but somewhat irreverent toward art. His 
sensitive nature, so exacting of his own work as to destroy these 
college efforts, recoiled from harsh or jeering criticism. For 
example, the good-natured taunt that gave Poe the nickname of 
" GafFy," because a character of that name was so prominent in 
one of his stories, cost the world this tale, for the author petulantly 
tossed the manuscript into the flames. 

In the invention and elaboration of these stories Poe served his 
apprenticeship as a short-story writer, and enrols himself as per- 
haps first in time, as he certainly became one of the first in 
importance in this art. It could hardly fail to be true, though it 
is now no longer capable of demonstration, that Poe, who was so 
frugal of his themes and so disposed to use his material over and 
over, has embodied the substance of some of these college stories 
in his famous tales. 

Poe began to write verse at an early age, and kept up the prac- 
tice during his student days. Boiling recalls that sometimes while 
Poe was taking part in conversation he would also write verse, 
training himself to listen and think of something else at the same 
time. This rhyming, pronounced creditable, was after all but a 
sign of his skill in versification, which was also shown in his 
translation from the Italian. There is good reason for believing 
that during the session he was seriously busied with poetry. His 
first volume of poetry was published prior to August, 1827; it 
probably went to press prior to May, 1827, when he enlisted in 
the United States Army as a private under the name of Edgar A. 
Perry.* Between December 20, 1826, and May 26, 1827, there 
was not very much time for writing poetry, because he was first in 
a Richmond counting house, then on a visit to Baltimore, then on 
his journeying to Boston. But Poe says that the contents of this 
volume were written in 1821—22, when he was twelve or thirteen 

»Just a few names above Poe's in the matriculation book (see Appendix II) Is 
that of Sidney A. Perry. Does this not suggest the source of his borrowed name? 



T'OE MEMORIAL. 17 

years old. Very little credence can be given to this claim, for 
many of these poems show unexpected maturity of mind for a 
youth of seventeen, and could hardly have been written by a boy 
of twelve ; and some of them were distinctly influenced by Byron, 
in whom Poe was especially interested during his University days. 
As this volume of 1827 was not, in all probability, written in the 
troublous months succeeding his University career, and could not 
have been written at a very early age, it is fair to conclude that 
some of the poems in this volume were written, and perhaps all of 
them, with a single exception (The Song), were revised while he 
was a student in the University of Virginia. His alma mater may 
justly claim him as her poet, though with his unique disregard of 
time and location he nowhere pays her a passing tribute. 

Athlete, student, saunterer, story-teller, and poet, he aspired also 
to another honor, and became very much interested in the debatino- 
society organized that year and named after the University's 
founder. Is it worth while now to prove that a boy of seventeen 
so multifariously busy could not have found time to be a habitual 
drunkard or an untiring gambler? There is no attempt to gloss 
over Poe's failings, but he is entitled to justice. 

The students divided themselves into two classes ; those like 
Gessner Harrison, Henry Tutwiler, and others who were noted for 
their quiet, studious habits ; and those like the Brunswick countv 
group, Dunn, Creightou, Gholson, and Tucker, who gave their 
studies a small share of their time. But in this large number who 
were not altogether studious there were all varieties of delinquents. 
There were the confirmed gamblers, who met over Jones' book 
store, or in one of the rooms clearly designated in the Faculty 
minutes, to play loo or all-fours, at from one to ten dollars a game. 
There were those who played occasionally for large stakes, but 
more frequently played whist or seven-up for small amounts, or 
indulged in the forbidden game of backgammon. In the Faculty 
minutes, filled in that year with trials of students, we read of visits 
to Mosby's and Daifan's confectioneries, where all manner of 
drinks, such as mint-sling, mixed and unmixed wine, toddy, 
Madeira, eggnog, peach and honey, and ardent and vinous liquors 



18 POE MEMORIAL. 

might be had ; and we learn further of dormitory entertainments, 
where such beverages were known. But in all these records we 
nowhere find any mention of the name of Edgar Poe : and when 
a long list of students summoned to appear before the Albemarle 
grand jury was made out Poe was not included, though many of 
his boon companions were. Poe was not, then, among the oifend- 
ers known to University or civil law, but from the private testi- 
mony of his college mates it is evident that he did sometimes play 
seven-up and loo, his favorite games, for money. That he was not 
so expert as Tucker considered him and his companions would 
seem to be established by his considerable losses. His partner, 
afterwards a devout clergyman, and his adversaries, including fre- 
quently two friends, who became respectively a well-known divine 
and a pious judge, were far better known to the University sport- 
ing circle than was Poe. 

That there was much gambling at the University in the first 
sessions is, unfortunately, true. At one of the numerous trials 
conducted by the Faculty a certain witness deposed that there 
were not fifty students at the University who did uot play cards. 
With as much readiness and no less accuracy he might have af- 
firmed, that not fifty of the fathers of these students were free 
from the same vice. The sentiments against it in the Faculty 
could not have been unyielding, for in 1825 three out of seven of 
the members wished gambling removed from the infractions pun- 
ished seriously and transferred to the list of minor offences pun- 
ishable by insignificant fines. It is no excuse for gaming that it 
was common, and but little extenuation that sentiment against it 
was not strong, but when gaming was both common and but 
mildly condemned, it is uncharitable to select one out of many 
and pronounce him the arch-criminal. It is unreasonable and un- 
just to select as this arch-criminal Edgar Poe, who, when others 
were tried and expelled for this offence, never at any time fell 
under any kind of official censure. 

In the scurrilous and irresponsible indictment drawn up by 
Griswold in his notorious Memoir of Poe, is the count that at the 
University of Virginia Poe " led a very dissipated life," and " was 



POE MEMORIAL, 19 

known as the wildest and most reckless student of his class." Mr. 
Wertenbaker, on the contrary, who as librarian and class-mate 
saw him perhaps every day, says : " He certainly was not habit- 
ually intemperate, but he may occasionally have entered into a 
frolic. I often saw him in the Lecture Room and in the Library, 
but never in the slightest degree under the influence of intoxicat- 
ing liquors." Mr. Wertenbaker evidently did not know of his 
own knowledge that Poe even occasionally entered into a frolic, 
but presumed this to be true because there was later a rumor to 
that effect. The rumor was true, but it does not seem to have 
been substantiated until Mr. Tucker wrote to Mr. Shirley in 1880, 
and his account probably states the whole case against Poe. "Poe's 
passion for strong drink was as marked and as peculiar as that for 
cards. It was not the taste of the beverage that influenced him ; 
without a sip or smack of the mouth he would seize a full glass, 
without water or sugar, and send it home at a single gulp. This 
frequently used him up ; but, if not, he rarely returned to the 
charge."* " He was very mercurial in his disposition and exceed- 
ingly fond of peach and honey," adds Mr. Tucker. There is 
nothing astonishing in this account of Poe's drinking. As a tiny 
tot he had been trained to stand on a chair at dinner parties and 
with a glass of wine pledge the brilliant company in Richmond or 
at the Old White Sulphur Springs. He lived in a land veritably 
flowing with peach and honey, where every sideboard held its full 
weight of inviting decanters. Drinking habits then prevailing in 
the homes were naturally transferred in part to the University, 
and Poe did not entirely escape the temptation. Nor need we be 
surprised that Poe was so easily affected. He was a nervous, 
sensitive boy, and a full glass might, according to his physical 
condition, readily excite him to " wild and fascinating conversa- 
tion," or render him unfit for any companionship. 

Filled for Poe with the duties, diversions, and occasional dissi- 
pations, the session passed with but one event of public moment 
and few of local interest. The Faculty in June passed this reso- 

* Thomas Goode Tucker to Douglas Shirley, April 5, 1880. Printed in Wood- 
berry's Poe (American Men of Letters Series). 



20 POE MEMORIAL. 

lution : " That the students be permitted to celebrate the 4th of 
July next by an oration and by a dinner within the Gymnasium." 
But before this day came Mr. Jefterson was seriously ill and it 
took all the skill of Dr. Dunglison (then Chairman of the Faculty) 
to prolong his illustrious patient's life until July 4th, a date for 
which he anxiously inquired. There is nothing more said of the 
celebration, which presumably was given up. On July 5th the 
Faculty passed most appropriate resolutions drafted by Prof. Tucker 
and determined to wear mourning on the left arm for the space of 
two months and to attend individually the interment at the family 
burying place. This decision on the part of the Faculty was no 
doubt operative among the students, who were probably present on 
the same sorrowful occasion. 

The summer, as hot then as now, if we may judge from the 
complaints of the students of 1825, soon yielded to the golden 
autumn days, when rambles in the Ragged Mountains must have 
been a genuine delight. As December approached there was 
doubtless then as now the somewhat feverish preparations for the 
final examinations. In the previous session the Board of Visitors 
had decreed that there should be public examinations, which they 
themselves would attend, but at which by Faculty resolution no 
strangers should be present unless specially invited. In issuing 
invitations, preference was to be given parents and guardians (of 
the male sex). These public examinations began on Monday, 
December 4th, in the Elliptical Room of the Rotunda, and were 
attended during that week by Madison (Rector) and Monroe, 
Joseph Cabell, and General John H. Cocke. The examination in 
Modern Languages was held on Tuesday, December 5 ; presum- 
ably Ancient Languages came on the previous day. If so, then 
Poe stood all of his examinations in the presence of these four 
distinguished men. There is no record of the length of the ex- 
aminations, which were oral, but in July, 1827, they were either 
two or three hours long, and began at the very unseasonable, if 
not unreasonable, hour of 5 A. M. They could hardly in mid- 
winter have begun earlier than the usual lecture hour, 7 : 30. 

The examinations were over on December 13 or 14, and on 






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the next day, December 15, the Faculty met. The very first 
resolution offered indicates that the method of examination had 
not proved satisfactory, and provides for material changes next 
session. It was further resolved ''that, for publishing the result 
of the examinations, a brief statement from each professor be sub- 
jected to the faculty." The reports of the several professors Avere 
then submitted. " Mr. Long made a report of the examination of 
the classes belonging to the school of ancient languages and the 
names of the students who excelled at the examination of these 
classes." For the first time in the Faculty minutes for 1826 the 
name of Edgar Allan Poe appears, as fourth in a list of nineteen 
who excelled in Senior Latin. These distinguished students are 
divided into groups, and Poe is third in the second group, Gessner 
Harrison standing alone in the first group. At the same meeting 
''the names of the students who excelled in the Senior French 
class " were reported by Professor Blaetterman. The eight names 
are arranged alphabetically, so Foe's stands sixth in the list. Mr. 
Wertenbaker says that under regulations existing in 1869 Poe 
would have been entitled to diplomas as a graduate in these two 
languages. This is not to be reconciled with the fact that Gessner 
Harrison, who heads the list in 1826, is again reported as excell- 
ing in Senior Latin in July, 1827. In other words, Poe tvas not 
necessarily a graduate iu these languages, but he had excelled in 
the examinations, and this was a high honor. 

At the Faculty meeting on December 20, 1826, "the Chairman 
presented to the Faculty a letter from the Proctor giving informa- 
tion that certain hotel keepers, during the last session, had been in 
the habit of playing at games of chance with the students in their 
dormitories ; he also gave the names of the following persons, who, 
he had been informed, had some knowledge of the facts." Then 
follows a list of nine, including Edgar Poe. Except in the official 
lists of those who excelled in examinations, this is tiie very first 
time Poe's name had ever been before the Faculty, and this time 
it was merely as a witness. The Proctor, however, seems to have 
been misinformed as to the knowledge possessed by some of the 
witnesses summoned, for several have no information iu point. 



22 POE MEMORIAL. 

Among these is Poe, for " Edgar Poe never heard until now of 
any hotel keepers playing cards or drinking with students." It 
is not at all necessary to suspect this clear and explicit statement, 
for Poe's circle of gaming friends was perhaps select and was 
almost certainly small. 

In his reminiscences, Mr. Werteubaker says : "As Librarian I 
had frequent official intercourse with Mr. Poe, but it was at or 
near the close of the session before I met him in the social circle. 
After spending an evening together at a private house [could this 
possibly have been the evening Professor Long led to the altar 
the beautiful Widow Selden ?] he invited me on our return into 
his room. It was a cold night in December, and, his fire having 
gone pretty nearly out, by the aid of some tallow candles and the 
fragments of a small table, which he broke up for the purpose, 
he soon rekindled it, and by its comfortable blaze I spent a very 
pleasant hour with him. On this occasion he spoke with regret 
of the large amount of money he had wasted and of the debts he 
had contracted during the session. If my memory is not at 
fault, he estimated his indebtedness at $2,000, and, though they 
were gaming debts, he was earnest and emphatic in the declara- 
tion that he was bound by honor to pay at the earliest op- 
portunity every cent of them I think it proba- 
ble that the night I visited him was the last he spent here. I 
draw this inference, not from memory, but from the fact that, 
having no further use for his candles and table, he made fuel of 
them." 

Whether Mr. Wertenbaker's inference is sound or not, Poe's 
confession to him contains the real reason why he never returned 
to the University. Edgar Allan Poe was not expelled, nor dis- 
missed, nor suspended, nor required to withdraw, nor forbidden 
to return, nor disciplined in any wise whatsoever, at the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, but Mr. Allan was shocked and incensed at the 
extent of his dishonorable "debts of honor" — which he at first 
refused to consider, but finally settled — and determined to put his 
extravagant foster son in his counting-room. 

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rOE MEMORIAL. 23 

dred things the faculty never heard of, or else it had been worse 
for him," but it is too late now to expel him for vices then unde- 
tected, or disgrace him for faults long ago outlived by his former 
college-mates and companions — the respected planter, the upright 
judge, the saintly clergyman. 



HISTORY OF POE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION. 



THE Poe Memorial Association was the outcome, partly of 
an article contributed to College Topics, in which it was 
suggested that the room occupied by Edgar Allan Poe in 1826 
should be furnished as a ' Poe Room ' and filled with pictures, 
autographs, and all the editions of Poe's works, and partly of a 
lecture on Poe delivered by Dr. Charles W. Kent before the class 
in English Literature. The interest in the poet, so stimulated, 
led several students to approach Dr. Kent and consult him about 
the desirability of setting on foot some movement to do honor to 
the memory of the LTniversity's greatest alumnus. It was noted 
that October 7, 1899, would be the semi-centennial of the poet's 
death, and it was determined that immediate steps should be 
taken. This was on March 29, 1897, and on the following Fri- 
day the first preliminary meeting was held in Dr. Kent's office, 
those present being Dr. Kent, Mr. Edgar Dawson, Mr. W. Berk- 
ley Williams, and Mr. James W. Hunter, Jr. A letter was read 
from an eminent sculptor in regard to the cost of the proposed 
memorial, and it was unanimously agreed that the sentiments of 
the students on this subject should be ascertained. So a mass- 
meeting was called for that purpose. 

On Tuesday evening, April 13, 1897, the mass-meeting of 
students was held in the hall of the Jeiferson Literary Society. 
The meeting was a most enthusiastic one, and the movement was 
greatly encouraged by Dr. Harrison's valuable suggestions and 
pecuniary offers. It was finally decided that an executive com- 
mittee, to act as directors of the movement and receive contribu- 
tions, should be selected. The committee chosen was composed 
of Professors Kent and Harrison and Messrs. Sidney E. Bradshaw, 
Lewis C. Williams, and Morris P. Tilley. Plans for raising 
money were then considered, and, after some discussion, the fol- 
lowing resoluti(Mi was unanimously adopted : 

"Resolved, Tliat this movement be a popular student move- 
ment, with a subscription of one dollar, though any one who so 



rOE MEMORIAL. 25 

desires may give more, and that each man present to-night agree 
to see at least three others about the matter." 

But little of the session of 1896—97 remained, yet this time 
was used to the best advantage. The committee set to work to 
secure such subscriptions and pledges as could be obtained ; many 
of the leading newspapers and magazines encouraged the enter- 
prise ; the success of the movement was assured. So far had the 
work progressed before the session closed that, at the instance of 
Professor Harrison, the Board of Visitors, at their annual meet- 
ing, June 15, 1897, adopted the following resolution : 

" Learning that an effort is being made by the friends of the 
University, both here and in the North, to gather together a Poe 
Memorial Library for the Library of the University of Virginia, 
at the suggestion of the friends of the movement here, it is 
resolved that an alcove of the University Library be set aside 
as the Poe Memorial Alcove for the reception of said memorial 
library ; said alcove to be selected by the Library Committee of 
the Faculty." 

The band of workers had as yet received no definite name. 
On the evening of Monday, November 7, 1898, however, Bishop 
Fitzgerald, of Nashville, Tenn., gave an informal account of his 
personal recollections of Poe, after which a meeting of those 
present was held, and for the first time the Poe Memorial Asso- 
ciation received its distinctive name. Dr. Kent was elected 
president ; Mr. Schuyler Poitevent, vice-president ; Dr. J. A. 
Harrison, secretary and treasurer, while Messrs. M. L. Bonner, 
M. L. Halif, Gordon Wilson, E. H. H. Old, L. C. Williams, 
and R. S. Brank were chosen as the remaining members of the 
executive committee. A constitution was adopted at the same 
time, and also the following resolution : 

" Whereas, Our most famous alumnus, Edgar Allan Poe, has 
never been sufficiently honored here at the University of Virginia 
by public testimonials of his worth ; and 

" Whereas, It has now been determined to erect to his mem- 
ory a bronze bust in the new Library ; and 



26 rOE MEMORIAL. 

" Whereas, It is clearly the pious duty of the University of 
Virginia to collect and preserve all of his literary productions, 
souvenirs of his life and work, and material contributing to the 
full understanding and appreciation of his career ; therefore, be it 

"Resolced, That for these and kindred purposes we here and 
now organize a permanent Poe Memorial Association." 

Subsequently the offices of secretary and treasurer were sepa- 
rated, Mr. Bonner being called to the treasurer's duties, while his 
former place on the executive committee was taken by Mr. E. L. 
Grace. 

Considerable progress was made during the succeeding months. 
Toward the end of the session it was decided that sufficient funds 
were on hand to warrant the engagement of a sculptor, and for 
this purpose a special committee, consisting of Dr. Kent, Dr. 
Harrison, and Mr. Gordon Wilson, was appointed. After much 
deliberation the contract for the execution of the bust was awarded 
to Mr. George Julian Zolnay, of whose life and work a sketch 
will be found elsewhere. Nor has the Poe Memorial Association 
ever had reason to regret the selection. 

The Association held its second annual meeting on November 
10, 1898, and at the same time was favored with an address by 
Judge R. T. W. Duke, Jr., of Charlottesville, on " Poe's Student 
Days." Upon the conclusion of Judge Duke's remarks a photo- 
graph of the clay model of the bust was shown, and the announce- 
ment was made that sufficient funds were on hand to meet the 
first payment. The Association then proceeded to the election of 
officers. Dr. Kent and Dr. Harrison were re-elected president 
and secretary respectively ; Mr. W. A. Clark, Jr., was made vice- 
president, and Mr. F. H. Abbot, treasurer. The newly-chosen 
executive board were Messrs. R. S. Brank, E. H. H. Old, Gordon 
Wilson, M. P. Tilley, A. B. Rhett, and L. P. Chamberlayne. 

When the session of 1899-1900 arrived all had gone well and 
only the final arrangements remained to be completed. As soon 
as possible the Association held a meeting. Details of the unveil- 
ing exercises were then discussed, and it was decided that all matters 



POE MPLMORIAL. 27 

be left in the hands of a Committee of Arrangements, consisting of 
Dr. Kent, Dr. Harrison, Prof. Thornton, Messrs. E. R. Rogers, 
W. H. Stuart, W. T. Shannonhouse, and J. W. Hunter, Jr. The 
meeting then adjourned until Saturday, October 7, 1899, the day 
which was to witness the unveiling of Zolnay's bust of Poe. 

The bust, which w^as delivered at the University in May and 
at once approved and accepted by the executive committee, is of 
bronze, representing the poet as leaning on his left hand, with the 
other nervously clutching the lappel of his coat. The expression 
of the eyes has been noted by art critics as being unusual for 
bronze. The bust, in position on its solid oak pedestal, is of 
heroic size. This pedestal bears a tablet with the inscription : 
" Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, student at the University of Vir- 
ginia, February to December, 182(3." There is on the bust itself 
a facsimile of the poet's signature. 



GEORGE JULIAN ZOLNAY. 



THE best idea of the life and works of this great sculptor 
before he was commissioned with the execution of the Poe 
bust may be gained from the following account, which appeared in 
a Brooklyn paper of January 28, 1898 : 

'' The career of an artist is generally an interesting chain of 
struggles, hopes, and disappointments of which the public little 
dreams. 

" What little the public ever knows of these tribulations it only 
knows from the history of the few chosen ones who finally suc- 
ceed. One of these successful artists whose history is of more 
than usual interest is Mr, George Julian Zolnay, of New York, 
whose recent successes have brought him to such prominence that 
he must be considered one of our leading sculptors. 

" The first of Mr. Zolnay's difficulties was the strong opposition 
of his family against his making art his profession, but this could 
not muzzle the impulse of genius. So at the first opportunity he 
went to Paris either to become a sculptor in the fullest sense of 
the word or to be submerged and disappear in the great current 
of human struggle. 

" From Paris he went to Vienna and competed for a place in 
the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating with 
highest honors from that famous institution, he was commissioned 
to model a pediment for the Carmelite Cloister illustrating the 
verse, ' Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and 
I will give you rest.' The originality of conception and power 
of execution which this young sculptor displayed in this work 
foreshadowed the brilliant success he was to achieve in later life. 
After a short visit to Paris in 1889 he returned to Vienna, and 
while there the American Consul-General to the Austrian capital 
urged him to come to this country and participate in the sculpture 
work of the Chicago World's Fair. Mr. Zolnay at once seized 
with enthusiasm this suggestion. His original intentions were to 




GEORGE JULIAN 20LNAY. 



POE MEMORIAL. 29 

do the sculpture work in Chicago and then return to Europe. 
But before he got through with his work he had become identified 
with the people and the country, and he decided to remain here. 

"■ However, Chicago not being congenial after the exposition, 
he returned to New York, which has remained his home. 

"In 1896 he entered the competition for the large monument 
to be erected in Galveston, Texas, representing the history of the 
Texan Revolution of 1836. This was the first Avork that brought 
Mr. Zolnay prominently before the public. The press of the 
whole country recognized in most flattering terms Mr. Zolnay's 
remarkable power. 

" His next work was a series of musicians — Beethoven, Mozart, 
Schuman, Chopin — in which his constant tendency to portray the 
spiritual was so strongly revealed that to-day these busts are con- 
sidei'ed the best portraits ever made of these heroes of the musical 
realm. 

" When modeling the musicians the necessity for some material 
which should be a worthy substitute for bronze and marble pre- 
sented itself more strongly than ever before, and Mr. Zolnay took 
up the thread of his former experiments and succeeded in giving 
to the world a compound for statuary which, it is predicted, will 
give sculpture work a popularity which it has not enjoyed since 
the times of Phidias. It is as durable as stone or bronze and as 
beautiful, but it reduces the cost of production to a minimum. In 
the early spring of this year Mr. Zolnay Avas offered a part of the 
work of the Nashville Centennial Exposition. While doing the 
large statues for the Centennial, he heard the pathetic story of 
Sam Davis, the Confederate scout, who preferred to sacrifice his 
life rather than betray a friend. 

" The heroism of the young Southron so appealed to Zolnay's 
mind that he at once determined to make a bust of the hero. 
When exhibited in the Parthenon it was a revelation to the 
people, who saw their ideal of manliness, courage, and self- 
sacrifice embodied in marble. This work revealed, more than 
any of Zolnay's creations, his strong personality and his ex- 
traordinary power of portraying the soul and all that is noble and 



30 POE MEMORIAL. 

elevating in human nature. His success was instantaneous. After 
leaving Nashville Mr. Zolnay was entrusted with the execution 
of the pediment of the new buildings of the University of Vir- 
ginia." 

It was in the fall of 1898 that the Executive Committee of the 
Poe Memorial Association agreed to entrust to Mr. Zolnay the 
execution of the Poe bust. The bust itself was completed during 
the early spring of 1899, and was put on view in the art exhibits 
of New York and also in the sculptor's studio. It at once 
attracted unusual attention, and photographs of it were repro- 
duced in more than a hundred of the leading magazines and 
newspapers, both in the United States and Canada. 

The Poe bust has been universally regarded as Zolnay's best 
achievement, since he has succeeded in the well-nigh impossible 
task of shaping in bronze the features of the man whose story is 
one of the most pathetic in the annals of American letters, and 
giving a vision of the soul and mind of the poet who has made 
for our literature its most notable, significant, and enduring part. 
Not only is this Zolnay's best production, but it is also the best 
portrait of Poe yet produced. Besides representing the physical 
features of the poet with such accuracy that those who knew him 
praise its fidelity, it has caught to an unusual degree the intel- 
lectual and spiritual characteristics of the poet as they are ex- 
hibited in his writings. 

Two letters from the sculptor are here quoted in extract, the 
one showing his conception of the task before him, the other his 
opinion of his work when finished : 

"The work on our Poe is progressing so successfully that I con- 
sider myself most fortunate in the undertaking. Everybody con- 
siders it an immense improvement over the original sketch of 
which you have a photograph, and I confidently hope my ambi- 
tions in this work will be fully gratified 

"I personally think that Poe was an unfortunate, more sinned 
against than sinning, who bore his misfortune with resignation, 
lacking the strength to ' fight it out.' On the other hand, I think 
he had more the nature of an artist than of a profound thinker; 
consequently, he probably was careless in many ways, M'hich his • 
enemies made capital of against him. 



POE MEMORIAL. 31 

"Be that as it may, it seems to me that the mission in trans- 
mitting tlie image of Poe to posterity, is not to emphasize his 
shortcomings, if he had any, but his great qualities of a genius. 
However, I think I ought to preserve a certain sadness in his ex- 
pression which depicts liis unfortunate life. This, in a general 
way, is my idea of Poe, and I should be under great obligations 
if you would kindly let me know to what extent my views coincide 

witli your wishes 

' ' Yours very truly, 

"G. J. ZOLNAY." 



' ' The general verdict is that this is by far the best piece of 
work I ever did. Stimulated by this signal success, I have pro- 
longed the work by two weeks, and I am satisfied now that there 
is nothing I could possibly improve in this bust. 

"Mrs. Jefferson Davis, for whom I am designing a memorial 
for her lost daughter, said that this Poe bust is the most remark- 
able piece of sculpture she has ever seen. 

"The commendation which is of the highest importance, how- 
ever, I received from Dr. Charles D. West, of Brooklyn. Dr. 
West, who was the head of the first female college in this city, was 
Poe's next-door neighbor, and appointed him chairman on the 
jury awarding medals for the best compositions in that institution. 
After Poe moved to Fordham, Dr. West visited him several times. 
Dr. West, although in his ninetieth year, retains his remarkable 
memory and intellectual powers, and his enthusiastic approval of 
the bust is the strongest guarantee that we have obtained not only 
a powerful representation of Poe's worth and personality, but a 
physical portrait as well. He thinks that the pose and general 
conception is most fortunate and characteristic of Poe." 



THE UNVEILING EXERCISES. 



T 



HE programme arranged by the committee was as follows : 

Prayer Kev. Charles A. Young. 

A Word of ^Vek'ome Dr. P. B. Barringer, Chairman. 

President' s Address Dr. Charles W. Kent. 

Presentation of the Bust Mr. Sidney Ernest Bradshaw. 

Bust Unveiled Master John Letcher Harrison. 

Acceptance of the Bust Dr. Paul B. Barringer, Chairman. 

Memorial Address Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie. 

Memorial ( )(le Mr. Robert Burns Wilson. 

In the best acconnt given of the exercises it was said : " One was 
impressed chiefly by two points : the bright, qniet, business-like 
way in which everything passed off — not allowing the audience 
for a moment to feel dull, bored or tired ; and the literary and 
historical value of the new matter produced in relation to a subject 
and a person so well known and so long and thoroughly discussed." 

The large public hall in the new Academic Building was well 
filled with a sympathetic audience of students, residents in the 
community and distinguished visitors. 

The following report is taken from the Alumni Bulletin : 
After a brief and appropriate prayer by the Rev. Charles A. 
Young, of the University, Dr. Paul B. Barringer, the Chairman 
of the Faculty, in an informal way turned over the meeting to the 
Association. In response. Dr. Charles W. Kent, the president of 
the Poe Memorial Association, to whose earnest efforts and hearty 
sympathy is largely due the success of this movement, delivered 
an address that met with the warmest appreciation and approval. 
He spoke first of the recognized aims of a university to collect 
and disseminate human knowledge, both in the halls and to the 
outside world ; then of the duty to preserve the historic past of 
the land or section in which it is situated, and then of the higher, 
nobler, and more practical purpose belonging to a university to 
apply knowledge to life, and thus cultivate wisdom and make men. 
The last two purposes are at once subserved by due honor paid to 



POE MEMORIAL. 33 

the illustrious dead, for the record of their achievements, the 
revival of interest in their lives and work, serve at the same time 
to elicit the admiration of young men for the great and to incite 
them to the emulation of the deeds of their fathers. The Univer- 
sity of Virginia has not, he said, been remiss beyond other insti- 
tutions in honoring her sons, but she has been blessed with many 
whose substantial attainments, exemplary citizenship, and laudable 
contributions to letters and arts deserve full recognition at her 
hands. 

But to-day, he continued, we have met on a most notable occa- 
sion — an occasion attracting not the attention of our University 
and Virginia alone, but, as you will hear to-night, of men and 
women all over our land. And surely no son is more worthy of 
our homage, for no other has become so widely known, or has so 
clearly established his claim to an immortality of fame. And 
Poe's connection with the University is more close and essential 
than many have supposed. He has been often pictured as one 
who came into our midst for a brief period — as for example did, 
later, Wolcott Balestier, the collaborator of Rudyard Kipling — 
and his career here has been described as stormy, and abruptly 
and rudely ended. Not only is this not true, but the truth is that, 
despite lapses from the path of exemplary conduct, despite an 
occasional surrender to the prevailing vices of his day, he con- 
ducted himself in his associations with the professors and officers 
of the institution so as to command their respect. For his attain- 
ments they had a high regard, which they testified privately, by 
public commendation, and by their official signatures. Moreover, 
his literary career afterwards had more than is supposed to do with 
his life here. It is true that there is difficulty in determining 
when Poe served his prentice years, but it is known that in his 
own room on the Range — in Rowdy Row, as it was then signifi- 
cantly called — as well as in the rooms of his fellow-students, he 
often fascinated them ,with his weird creations. His long walks 
around these hills furnished him with both mood and material, and 
there are echoes of his life here in the Tale of the Ragged Moun- 
tains and in other stories. Presumably, too, poetic exercises were 



34 POE MEMORIAL. 

usual with him, else how would he have merited that famous com- 
mendation for his metrical translation of a passage from Tasso ? 
His reading here, too, might have been taken as a slight indication 
both of his taste and his mental traits. It was here, no doubt, 
that he laid the foundation for his mental achievements, and we 
can claim to have influenced him in his development as much as 
any other institution or as any experience of his early life. We 
do ourselves honor in honoring him, and on this day, which 
reminds us of his life and death, we can lay aside for the moment 
all censure of his life, all scorn for his weaknesses, all pity for his 
fate, and rejoice in the unique productions of his solitary genius 
and the world-wide recognition of his literary greatness. 

The presentation of the bust was made by Mr, Sidney Ernest 
Bradshaw, of Kentucky, who spoke as follows : 

" Nearly three-quarters of a century ago there came to the Uni- 
versity of Virginia a youth unknown to fortune and fame. His 
sojourn here was short, and he left these academic halls before the 
completion of his course ; yet his brief stay is one of the most 
memorable events in the history of this grand old institution. 
Though his subsequent life was marred by inherited weaknesses, 
he was gifted nevertheless with that which places a man among 
the immortals — genius; a genius unique and rare; a genius that 
marked his name as one of the very greatest in American litera- 
ture. By accident of birth a Bostonian, he was by training and 
sympathy a Southerner, and much of his work was done in the 
South, where he has always been recognized and very popular. 
But the recognition of the wonderful genius of Edgar Allan Poe 
has not been confined merely to the South ; his readers and 
admirers are numbered by multitudes in the North ; one of his 
best biographies was written by a Northern man, and the best 
edition of his works was edited by two Northern men. To quote 
from the current number of a leading critical journal, ' His place 
among our greatest writers becomes every year more and more 
firmly assured.' Abroad, Poe has been regarded even more highly, 
if possible, than at home. His works have been translated into the 
leading foreign languages — French, German, Spanish, Italian — 



POE MEMORIAL, .};) 

and by several of these nations he is considered the greatest and 
most original writer America has yet produced. 

" ' Tlirough many a year his fame has grown — 
Like midnight, vast, like starlight, sweet — 
Till now liis genius fills a throne. 
And nations marvel at his feet.' 

" With these facts before us, we cannot but feel that while Poe 
is of the South, Southern, he is also of the nation, national, and 
that as such his memory deserves all honor and respect. 

'' It was with this feeling that a number of University of Vir- 
ginia students met together in the spring of 1897 to discuss plans 
for a suitable commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 
poet's death. A temporary organization was formed, and, after 
due consideration, it was determined that the occasion should be 
marked by the presentation to his Ahna Mater of a life-size bust of 
Poe. The session of 1896-97 was already far advanced, but com- 
mittees were appointed to feel the pulse of the student body and 
see what could be done. These met with encouragement, and a 
sufficient number of men were enrolled as members and supporters 
of the movement to warrant its ultimate success. The session of 
1896-97 closed. The next year several of the original workers 
failed to return to the University, but more competent hands took 
up the work, and on November 8, 1897, a permanent organization 
was effected under the name of the Poe Memorial Association. 
The constitution, adopted in due form, did not forbid membership 
to persons outside of the University, but from the first the move- 
ment was distinctively a student movement — the aim being to pay 
a tribute from present students to a former student — and the main 
endeavor was directed towards continuing it as such. Dr. Kent 
and Professor Harrison, of the Faculty, had given their hearty 
sympathy and support, and at the permanent organization the 
former was elected president and the latter secretary. The matter 
was kept before the students by the work of the committees, by 
the reading of papers on Poe in the University Book Club, and 
by notices from time to time in College Topics. 

" The commission for the bust was entrusted to Mr. George 



36 POE MEMORIAL. 

Julian Zolnay, the well-known sculptor of New York. At the 
second annual meeting of the Association, in November, 1898, the 
completion of the clay model was announced, and the bust was 
soon afterwards cast in bronze. It was exhibited in New York, 
and accounts of it were published in the magazines. Wide inter- 
est was manifested throughout the country, and many enthusiastic 
letters were received from eminent people. As in every movement 
of this kind, however, obstacles and discouragements were not 
wanting ; interest sometimes seemed to flag ; subscriptions did not 
come in as rapidly as might be desired ; but happily, through the 
skilful guidance of the president, all these things have been over- 
come, and the main purpose of the Association has been accom- 
plished. 

" I therefore now have the honor, Mr. Chairman, of formally 
presenting to the University of Virginia, in the name of the Poe 
Memorial Association, the Zolnay bust of Edgar Allan Poe." 

Just as Mr. Bradshaw uttered his last words Master John 
lictcher Harrison touched the cord and the covering veil fell to 
the floor. The impression produced is thus variously described : 

"A wave of sadness swept over every heart present, for the 
sculptor had portrayed with magic power the sorrowfulness of the 
poet's life." 

" The tension of silence that fell upon the beholders was the 
best proof of the power and fidelity with which the sculptor had 
done his work. Mr. Zolnay never saw Poe, but he has studied 
his subject in all the positions in which the kindred art of painting 
has represented him, and has produced what Mr. E. C. Stedman 
very aptly calls ' a not untruthful likeness.' 

" One fancies that the resemblance between artist and subject 
has aided in that revelation of the poet's true self whicli has 
assuredly been achieved ; for Zolnay's bust is the real Poe. Not 
at the age of thirty-five, not in the act of composing ' The 
Raven ' — all this is pure Philistinism. It is Poe — poor, strug- 
gling, suffering, misunderstood, longing, but unable to reveal him- 
self; Poe, 'whose heart-strings were a lute,' often sadly out of 



POE MEMORIAL. 37 

tune, and quivering sharply and discordantly under a rude or 
careless touch.' 

" ' I feel as if I were one of those who misunderstood him,' said 
a beholder. The words were a justification of the sculptor's con- 
ception of his task, and a tribute to the manner of its execution." 

Dr. Barringer, on behalf of the University, expressed his appre- 
ciation of the handsome gift, and promised the Association that 
the bust of Edgar Allan Poe should ever have an honorable place 
among the treasures of the institution, and the care and attention 
its artistic value merited. He also took occasion to deny the oft- 
repeated falsehood that Poe was expelled from the University of 
Virginia. On the contrary, he produced the records of the Uni- 
versity, which show conclusively that Poe was never before the 
Faculty but once, and then as a witness in a case about which he 
knew nothing. 

The feature of the day, a masterly memorial address by Mr. 
Hamilton W. Mabie, of New York, was a fitting and eloquent 
tribute to the dead poet and to his position in American letters. 
Broad and comprehensive in grasp, simple and elegant in style, 
tender and poetic in sentiment, just and unbiased in criticism, 
hopeful and optimistic in mood, this address held the audience 
spellbound for an hour, and marked, perhaps, the climax of the 
many literary addresses of this University. Taking as his theme 
" Poe's Place in American Literature," Mr. Mabie spoke as 
follows. 



38 POE MEMORIAL. 



POE'S PLACE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 



Mr. President and 3Iembers of the Poe 3Iemorial Association, 
Ladies and Gentlemen of the University: 

No wise man would seek the responsibility which rests on the 
speaker of to-day, nor would any wise man decline the oppor- 
tunity which this occasion presents. The presence of an audience 
at once critical and inclusive, representative of so many sections 
and interests, furnishes the most convincing evidence of the dig- 
nity and significance of this memorial celebration. 

It is fitting that the impressive memorial of this rare and gifted 
spirit should be placed here, where the young men of this ancient 
commonwealth will bring their aspirations in all the time to come. 
Virginia has never lost touch with the spirit of her earlier tradi- 
tions ; has never parted with that generous idealism which gave 
fire to the speech of Henry, ardor to the poise of Washington, 
prophetic breadth to the statesmanship of Jefferson, and the high- 
est personal distinction to the genius of Lee. Under the roof of 
her historic University, in the heart of a landscape touched with 
some of her noblest traditions of public service, the face of Poe 
will look into the faces of those who are to make or mar the for- 
tunes of the future. Those fortunes must be spiritual in their 
uses, however material in their forms. They can never be great 
so long as they can be measured and valued ; it is only when they 
fly the scales and refuse to be computed that they become part of 
the immortal heritage of the race. They cannot be reckoned in 
gold or silver ; they are not to be measured in lands and ships ; 
they are not even to be counted in ])olitical rights and privileges. 
The fortunes of the race are not bound up with forms of govern- 
ment, but with nobility of soul, freedom of spirit, richness of 
life. This country stands in sore need of the men who shall set 
it free from servile devotion to success, and bring its body into 
subjection to its spirit; who shall redeem it from content with 
inferior men and satisfaction in small and easy achievements. It 




HAMILTON W. MABIE. 



POE MEMORIAL. 39 

needs the love of greatness, the passion for perfection. It needs 
the opening of the windows of the imagination. Here, then, let 
this beautiful image stand, to remind the men of the future that 
the things of the hand perish, but the things of the spirit are im- 
mortal ; and that we live, not in the things we measure, but in 
the things which measure us. 

One fact about our literature has not received adequate atten- 
tion — the fact that it had no childhood. In its beginning it was 
the record of a people who had long passed the age of play and 
dreams, and were given over to pressing and exacting work. We 
are a young nation, but an old people ; and our books, as distin- 
guished from English books, are the products of a mature people 
in a new world. The world in which books are written has much 
to do with their quality, their themes, and their form ; but the 
substance of the books of power is the deposit of experience in 
the hearts and minds of a race. In American literature we have 
a fresh field and an old race ; we have new conditions, and an 
experience which antedates them. We were educated in the Old 
World, and a man carries his education with him. He cannot 
escape it, and would lose incalculably if he could. 

The kind of originality which inheres in a new race and runs 
into novel forms we do not and shall not possess ; the kind of 
originality which issues out of direct and hand-to-hand dealing 
with nature and life we may hope to develop on the scale of the 
Greeks or the English. A great literature must be waited for, 
and while we are waiting it is wise to be hopeful of the future ; 
for expectation is often a kind of prophecy, and to believe in the 
possibility of doing the best things in the best way is in itself a 
kind of preparation. To say that literature in this country, to 
the close of this century, is the product of an old race is not to 
charge it with lack of first-hand insight and force, but to explain 
some of its characteristics. 

Goethe speaks of his mother's joyousness and love of stories. 
Her temperament was the gift which irradiated the pedantic 
father's bequest of order, industry, and method to the author of 
Faust. Art is the constant assertion that man has a right to live 



40 POE MEMORIAL. 

as well as to work ; that the value of work depends largely upon 
spontaneity ; and that the springs which gush from the soil have 
the greatest power of assuaging the thirst of the soul. This ele- 
ment of the uncalculated, the spontaneous, the uncontrolled, or at 
least undirected play of human energy finds full and free expres- 
sion in the literature of the youth of races, and is the special and 
prime quality of literature at that stage of development. As the 
man is born first in the boy's temper and spirit and ideals,' and 
born again in the struggles of experience, so the creative imagina- 
tion of a race is shaped, colored, and formed largely in the earliest 
contacts of that race with nature and with life ; with the order 
about it, and the inward and outward happenings of its life. 
Work and play, the conscious putting forth of energy and the 
unconscious responsiveness to all manner of impressions, must be 
kept in equilibrium, if there is to be continuous and rich produc- 
tiveness. But the pressure of suffering and toil is so great upon 
the mature race, as upon the mature man, that it can be met only 
by a great accumulation in youth of idealism and joy. In the 
popular epics and in the early ballads there is a freshness, a 
vitality, an uncalculated and captivating charm, which make the 
reader of a more sophisticated age feel that in reading or hearing 
them he is near the springs of literature. 

That there are close and vital ties between all the arts of 
expression and the life behind them ; that the poem and the story 
reflect in interior and elusive but very real ways the quality of the 
race which fashioned them ; that genius itself, although in a sense 
independent of character, is conditioned, for its full, free, and 
highest expression, upon character, the large majority of students of 
literature are agreed. But these structural laws are never obvious in 
the great works of art ; they are obeyed, not because they have been 
arbitrarily imposed by an authority from without, but because they 
are at one with the deepest artistic impulses and necessities. 
Shakespeare does not need to remind himself that he is an Eng- 
lishman in order to write like one ; he has but to follow the line 
of least resistance in expression, and his work will be English to 
the core. 



I'OE MEMORIAL. 41 

Literature may be said to approach perfection in the degree in 
which it reveals the life behind it, and at the same time conceals 
all trace of intention, contrivance, or method in making its reve- 
lation. In the highest work of all kinds, obedience is spontaneous 
and apparently unconscious ; for it is the very essence of art that 
all traces of the workman should be effaced. A great poem has 
the volume, the flow, the deep and silent fullness, of a river ; one 
cannot calculate the force of the springs which feed it ; one gets 
from it only a continuous impression of exhaust! ess and effortless 
power. One has but to glance at the Rhone to feel that the Alps 
are feeding it. In the literature of races in their youth there may 
be no greater power than in the literature of the same races at 
maturity, but there is likely to be more buoyancy, confident ease, 
overflowing vitality, than at a later period ; and these earlier works 
enrich all later work by the qualities they bring into the race con- 
sciousness. There Avas something in Homer which the dramatists 
could not reproduce, but which profited them much ; there was a 
joy, a delight in life, a fragrance of the morning, in Chaucer 
which, reappearing in Shakespeare, make the weight of tragedy 
bearable. It is well for a race, as for a man, that it has childhood 
behind it, and that in those first outpourings of energy in play the 
beauty of the new day and the young world sinks into its heart 
and becomes part of its deepest consciousness ; for it is out of 
these memories and dreams that the visions of art issue. The 
artist is always a child in freshness of feeling ; in unworldly 
delight in the things which do not add to one's estate, but which 
make for inward joy and peace ; in that easy possession of the 
world which brings with it the sense of freedom, the right to be 
happy, and the faith that life is greater than its works, and a man 
more important than his toil. A race, like an individual, must get 
this consciousness of possession before the work of the day becomes 
imperative and absorbing. The man who has not learned to play in 
childhood is not likely to learn to play in maturity; and without the 
spirit of play — the putting forth of energy as an end in itself, and 
for the sake of the joy which lies in pure activity — there can be no 
art. For work becomes art only when it is transformed into play. 



4-2 POE MEMORIAL. 

Our race has had its youth, its dreams and visions; but that 
youth was lived on another continent ; so far as the record of 
experience in our literature is concerned, we have always been 
mature people at hard work. The beginnings of our art are to be 
found, therefore, not in epics, ballads, songs, and stories, but in 
records of exploration, reports of pioneers, chronicles and histo- 
ries ; in Captain John Smith's True Relation of such Occurrences 
and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia ; in Wil- 
liam Bradford's History of Plymouth ; in John Winthrop's His- 
tory of New England, a narrative not without touches of youth, 
" We had now fair sunshine weather, and so pleasant a sweet air 
as did much refresh us, and there came a smell off the shore like 
the smell of a garden;" in Cotton Mather's Magnalia ; in Poor 
Richard's Almanac ; in Mrs. Bradstreet's rhymed history of The 
Four Monarchies ; in Michael Wigglesworth's Day of Doom, of 
which Lowell said that it became " the solace of every fireside, the 
flicker of the pine knots by which it was conned perhaps adding a 
livelier relish to its premonitions of eternal combustion." There 
are touches of beauty in Jonathan Edwards at his best ; there is a 
spiritual charm in John Woolman's Journal ; the directness and 
simplicity of genuine literature are in Franklin's Autobiography; 
in Freneau and Hopkinson there are strains which, in a more for- 
tunate time, might easily have turned to melody; there were great 
notes struck by the writers and orators of the Revolutionary 
period — by Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Henry. But in all this 
early expression of the English race in the New World there is a 
clear, definite purpose, an ulterior aim, a subordination of the art 
to the religious or political intention, which stamp the writing of 
the time as essentially secondary. Art involves forgetfulness of 
immediate ends ; complete surrender to the inward impulse to 
give form to the beautiful idea or image or truth because it is 
beautiful. Of the naivete of the old ballad, the careless rapture of 
Chaucer when the lark sings and the meadows grow sweet with 
the breath of May, the free and joyous play of imagination in 
Shakespeare, there is no trace in early writing on this continent. 
That writing was serious and weighty, often touching the heights 



POE .^lEMORIAL. 43 

of eloquence in noble argument for the inviolability of those rights 
which are the heritage of the English race ; but the spontaneity, 
the freedom, the joyousness, of creative art were not in it. They 
could not be in it ; the men who wrote our early chronicles and 
histories, who took part in the great debates which preceded the 
Revolution, and made the speeches which were heard from Wil- 
liamsburg to Boston, had other work to do. 

In Charles Brockden Brown a new note is heard — a note of 
mystery and tragedy; as if into the working world of the new 
continent the old elements of fate had come, to give experience a 
deeper tinge, and to make men aware that in the fresh as in the 
long-tilled soil the seeds of conflict and sorrow are sown. There 
is none of the joyousness of youth in Brown's romances ; but there 
is the sense of power, the play of the imagination, the passion for 
expression for its own sake, which are the certain signs of litera- 
ture. There is, above all, the daemonic element, that elusive, 
incalculable, mysterious element in the soul of the artist, which is 
present in all art, and which, when it dominates the artist, forms 
those fascinating, mysterious personalities, from Aristophanes to 
Poe, who make us feel the futility of all easy endeavors to formu- 
late the laws of art, or to explain with assurance the relations of 
genius to inheritance, environment, education, and temperament. 
In art, as in all products of the creative force, there is a mystery 
which we cannot dispel. If we could analyze genius, we should 
destroy it. To the time of the publication of " Wieland, or the 
Transformation," it is easy to explain the written expression of 
American life, to show how it was directed and shaped by condi- 
tions in the New World ; but with the publication of Wieland the 
inexplicable appears, the creative spirit begins to reveal itself. 
Charles Brockden Brown did not master his material and organize 
it, and his work falls short of that harmony of spirit and form 
which is the evidence of a true birth of beauty; but there are 
flashes of insight in it, touches of careless felicity, which witness 
the possession of a real gift. 

The prophecy which the discerning reader finds in Brown's 
sombre romances was fulfilled in the work of Poe and Hawthorne. 



44 POE MEMORIAL. 

It is conceivable that a student of the Puritan mind might have 
foreseen the coming of Hawthorne ; for the great romancer, who 
was to search the Puritan conscience as with a lighted candle, was 
rooted and grounded historically in the world behind him. There 
was that in Hawthorne, however, which could not have been pre- 
dicted : there was the mysterious co-working of temperament, 
insight, individual consciousness, and personality which constitutes 
what we call genius. On one side of Hawthorne's work there are 
lines of historical descent which may be clearly traced ; on the 
other there is the inexplicable miracle, the miracle of art, the cre- 
ation of the new and beautiful form. 

It is the first and perhaps the most obvious distinction of 
Edgar Allan Poe that his creative work baffles all attempts to 
relate it historically to antecedent conditions ; that it detached 
itself almost completely from the time and place in which it made 
its appearance, and sprang suddenly and mysteriously from a soil 
which had never borne its like before. 

There was nothing in the America of the third decade of the 
century which seemed to predict The City in the Sea, Israfel, and 
the lines. To Helen. It is true, work of genuine literary quality 
had been produced, and a notable group of writers of gift and 
quality had appeared. Irving had brought back the old joyous- 
ness and delight in life for its own sake in Knickerbocker's His- 
tory of New York and in the Sketch Book ; Cooper had uncovered 
the romantic element in our history in The Spy; Thanatopsis had 
betrayed an unexpected touch of maturity; Emerson was medi- 
tating at Concord that thin volume on Nature, so full of his pene- 
trating insight into the spiritual symbolism of natural phenomena 
and processes ; Longfellow had returned from that first year of 
foreign residence which had enriched his fancy, and through the 
sympathetic quality of his mind was to make him the interpreter 
of the Old World to the New. Hawthorne, born five years earlier 
than Poe — so like him in certain aspects of his genius, so unlike 
him in temperament and character — destined to divide with him 
the highest honors of American authorship, was hidden in that 
fortunate obscurity in which his delicate and sensitive genius 



POE MEiMORIAL. 45 

found perhaps the best conditions for its ripening. The TAvice- 
Told Tales did not appear until 1837. Lowell was a school-boy, 
a college student, and a reluctant follower of the law ; the Bigelow 
Papers, his most original and distinctive contribution to our litera- 
ture, being still a full decade in the future. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, born in the same year with Poe — that annus mirabilis 
which gave the world Poe, Holmes, Tennyson, Lincoln, Gladstone, 
Darwin, Mendelssohn, and Chopin — had touched the imagination 
of the country by the ringing protest in Old Ironsides against 
the destruction of the Constitution, and in the same decade revealed 
his true lyric gift in The Last Leaf. Whittier was a young 
Quaker, of gentle nature but intense convictions, who was speak- 
ing to hostile audiences and braving the perils of mob violence in 
his advocacy of the anti-slavery cause. 

These names suggest the purity and aspiration, the high ideal- 
ism and the tender domestic piety, which were soon to give early 
American literature its distinctive notes. To these earlier poets, 
romancers, and essayists were, later, to be added the name of 
Sidney Lanier, whose affluent nature needed another decade for 
its complete unfolding and coordination ; and of Walt Whitman, 
who was so rich in the elemental qualities of imagination, and so 
rarely master of them. There was something distinctive in each 
of these writers — something which had no place in literature be- 
fore they came, and is not likely to be repeated ; and yet, from 
Bryant to Whitman, there were certain obvious relationships, both 
spiritual and historical, between each writer and his environment. 
Each was representative of some deep impulse finding its way to 
action ; of some rising passion which leaped into speech before it 
turned to the irrevocable deed. 

To the men who were young between 1830 and 1840, there 
was something in the air which broke up the deeps of feeling and 
set free the torpid imagination. For the first time in the New 
World it became easy and natural for men to sing. Hitherto the 
imagination had been invoked to give wings and fire to high 
argument for the rights of men ; now the imagination began to 
speak, by virtue of its own inward impulse, of the things of its 



46 POE MEMORIAL. 

own life. In religion, in the social consciousness, in public life, 
there were stirrings of conscience which revealed a deepening life 
of the spirit among the new people. The age of provincialism, 
of submission to the judgment and acceptance of the taste of 
older and more cultivated communities, was coming to an end. 
Dr. Holmes called the address delivered before the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society at Harvard College in August, 1837, "our dec- 
laration of intellectual independence." That independence was 
already partially achieved when Emerson spoke those memorable 
words : — 

" Perhaps the time is already come . . . when the slug- 
gard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids 
and fulfill the postponed expectation of the world with something 
better than the exertions of mechanical skill. Our day of depend- 
ence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws 
to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life 
cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests. 
Events, actions, arise that must be sung, that will sing themselves. 
Who can doubt that poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as 
the star in the constellation Harp', which now flames in our zenith, 
astronomers announce, shall one day be the polestar for a thou- 
sand years." 

This striving of the spirit, breaking away from the old forms 
and feeling after new ways of speech, was shared by all the New 
England writers. Beneath his apparent detachment from the 
agitations of his time, Dr. Holmes was as much a breaker of old 
images as Lowell or Whittier ; and Hawthorne, artist that he was 
to the last touch of his pen, is still the product of Puritanism. 
The breath of the new time was soft and fecundating on the old 
soil, and the flowers that were soon afield had the hue of the sky 
and the shy and delicate fragrance of the New England climate 
in them. 

Poe stood alone among his contemporaries by reason of the fact 
that, while his imagination was fertilized by the movement of the 
time, his work was not, in theme or sympathy, representative of 
the forces behind it. The group of gifted men, with whom he 



POE MEMORIAL. 47 

had for the most part only casual connections, reflected the age 
behind them or the time in which they lived; Poe shared with 
them the creative impulse without sharing the specific interests 
and devotions of the period. He was primarily and distinctively 
the artist of his time ; the man who cared for his art, not for 
what he could say through it, but for what it had to say through 
him. Emerson, Lowell, Holmes, Whittier, Bryant, Irving, and, in 
certain aspects of his genius, Hawthorne might have been predicted ; 
reading our early history in the light of our later development, 
their coming seems to have been foreordained by the conditions of 
life on the new continent ; and, later, Whitman and Lanier stand 
for and are bound up in the fortunes of the New World, and its 
new order of political and social life. Poe alone, among men of 
his eminence, could not have been foreseen. 

This fact suggests his limitations, but it also brings into clear 
view the unique individuality of his genius and the originality of 
his work. His contemporaries are explicable ; Poe is inexplicable. 
He remains the most sharply-defined personality in our literary 
history. His verse and his imaginative prose stand out in bold 
relief against a background which neither suggests nor interprets 
them. One may go further, and affirm that both his verse and his 
prose have a place by themselves in the literature of the world. 

There are, it is true, evidences of Poe's sensitiveness to the 
English landscape, and to certain English philosophical and liter- 
ary influences. The five years spent in the Manor House school 
in the suburbs of the London of the early part of the century 
gave the future writer of .William Wilson and The Fall of the 
House of Usher a store of reminiscences and impressions of land- 
scape and architecture which touched some of his later work with 
atmosphere effects of the most striking kind, and gave that work 
a sombre and significant background of immense artistic value. 
It is not difficult to find in his earlier verse, as Mr. Stedman has 
suggested, the influence of Byron and Moore, whose songs were 
in the heart of that romantic generation. It is easy also to lay 
bare Poe's indebtedness to Coleridge. This is only saying, how- 
ever, that no man of imagination ever grows up in isolation ; 



48 POE MEMOEIAT., 

every sensitive spirit shares in the impulses of its time, and 
receives its education for its own work at the hands of older 
teachers. When all is said, however, Poe remains a man of sin- 
gularly individual genius, owing little to his imipediate or even to 
his remoter environment ; an artist who felt keenly the spirit of 
his art as it has found refuge in beautiful forms, but who detached 
himself with consistent insistence from the influence of other 
artists. 

Until Poe began his brief and pathetic career, the genius of 
Virginia and of the South had found expression chiefly in the 
moulding of national institutions and the shaping of national 
affairs ; and it may be said without exaggeration that rarely in 
the history of the world has public life been enriched by so many 
men of commanding intellect and natural aptitude for great 
affairs. The high intelligence, the wide grasp of principles, and 
the keen practical sense of the earlier Southern statesmen gave 
the stirring and formative periods of our early history epic dig- 
nity. In such a society Bacon might have found food for those 
organ-toned essays on the greatness of states and the splendor of 
national fortunes and responsibilities. It was due largely to the 
Virginians that the earlier public discussions and the later public 
papers so often partook of the quality of literature. In Poe, 
however, the genius of the South seemed to pass abruptly from 
great affairs of state into the regions of pure imagination. In 
The City in the Sea, Israfel, and the verses To Helen — to recall 
three of Poe's earliest and most representative poems — there is 
complete detachment from the earlier .interests and occupations, 
and complete escape into the world of ideality. It is part of the 
charm of these perfect creations that they are free from all trace 
of time and toil. Out of the new world of work and strife 
magical doors were flung wide into the fairyland of pure song ; 
out of the soil, tilled with heroic labor and courage, a fountain 
suddenly gushed from unsuspected springs. 

In this disclosure of the unforeseen in our literary development, 
in the possession of the daemonic element in art, Poe stands alone 
in our literature, unrelated to his environment and detached from 



POE MEMORIAL. 49 

his time ; the most distinctive and individnal writer who has yet 
appeared in this country. 

Among the elements which go to the making of the true work 
of art, the d;emonic holds a first place. It is the essential and 
peculiar quality of geniuS; — the quality which lies beyond the 
reach of the most exacting and intelligent work, as it lies beyond 
the search of analysis. A trained man may learn the secrets of 
form ; he may become an adept in the skill of his craft'; but the 
final felicity of touch, the ultimate grace of effortless power, elude 
and baftle him. Shakespeare is never so wonderful as in those 
perfect lines, those exquisite images and similes, those fragrant 
sentences akin with the flowers in their freshness, and in their 
purity with waters Avhich carry the stars in their depths, which 
light comedy and tragedy and history as with a light beyond the 
sun. Other aspects of his work may be explained; but the care- 
less rapture of such phrases as 

" And those eyes, tlie break of day, 
Lights that do mislead the morn;" 
"Daffodils, 
That come before tlie swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim. 
But sweeter than the lids of .Juno's eyes," 

leaves us wondering and baffled. AVe have no key to them. This 
natural magic, this divine ease in doing the most difficult things, 
is the exclusive property of the man of genius, and is his only in 
his most fortunate hours. No man can command this consummate 
bloom on human speech ; it lies on his work as it lies on the fields, 
because the creative spirit has passed that way. It came again 
and again to Wordsworth during fifteen marvelous years ; and 
when it passed it left him cold and mechanical. It is the pure 
spirit of art moving like the wind where it listeth, and, like the 
wind, dying into silence again. This magic was in Poe, and its 
record remains, and will remain, one of our most precious literary 
possessions. The bulk of the work upon which it rests is not 
great ; its ethical significance is not always evident ; it is not 
representative after the manner of the great masters of poetry ; 
but its quality is perfect. The importance of half a dozen per- 



50 POE MEMORIAL. 

feet poems is not to be discovered in their mass; it lies in the 
revelation of the imagination which shines in and from them. 
Among a practical people, dealing with the external relations of 
men, and largely absorbed in the work of the hands, the sudden 
flashing of the "light that never was on sea or land" was a 
spiritual event of high significance. That men do not live by 
bread alone is the common message of religion and of art. That 
message was delivered by Poe with marvelous distinctness of 
speech. That he knew what he wanted to say, and that he de- 
liberately and patiently sought the best way of saying it, is clear 
enough ; it neither adds to nor detracts from the artistic value of 
what he did that he knew what he wanted to do. The essential 
fact about him and his work is, that he w^as possessed by the 
passion for beauty for its own sake, and that at his best he had 
access to the region of pure ideality. 

The spiritual value of art lies not only in its power to impart 
ideas, but also in its power to clear the vision, to broaden the 
range of human interests, and to liberate the imagination. Poe's 
work attests again the presence of an element in the life of man 
and in the work of his hand which cannot be foreseen, calculated, 
or controlled ; a quality not dissociated in its perfect expression 
from historic or material conditions, but in its origin independent 
of them. It is the witness, in other words, of something divine 
and imperishable in the mind of man — something which allies 
him with the creative energy, and permits him to share it. The 
fact that he is sometimes unworthy of this high disclosure of the 
ultimate beauty, and sometimes recreant to his faith and his gift, 
diminishes the significance and value of his work no more than a 
kindred infidelity nullifies the Avord of prophets of another order. 
In the mysterious spiritual economy of the universe, there are 
coordinations of gift and character, relations of spirit and environ- 
ment, which elude all efforts to formulate them ; not because they 
lie outside the realm of law, but because the mind of man has not 
yet been able to explore that realm. And in this very incom- 
pleteness of the philosophy of art lies that inexhaustible spiritual 
suggestiveness which is at once the inspiration of art and its bur- 



POE MEMORIAL. 51 

den. Poe is distinctiv^ely and in a unique sense the artist in our 
literature — the man to whom beauty was a constant and sufficient 
justification of itself. 

Such a faith is not without its perils; but in a new and work- 
ing world, whose idealism had run mainly along lines of action, 
it was essential and it was of high importance. This single- 
mindedness of Poe in the pursuit of perfection in phrase and form 
was not a matter of mere workmanship; it was the passion to 
match the word with the thought, the melody with the, feeling, so 
vitally and completely that the ultimate harmony, in which all 
men believe and for which all men crave, might become once 
more a reality amid the dissonances of a struggling and imperfect 
society. It is the function of the prophet to declare the inexor- 
able will of righteousness amid a moral disorder which makes that 
will, at times, almost incredible; it is the office of the artist to 
discern and reveal the ultimate beauty in a time when all things 
are in the making, and the dust and uproar of the workshop con- 
ceal even the faint prophecies of perfection. 

In the vast workshop of the new society, noisily and turbulently 
coordinating itself, Foe's work has been often misunderstood and 
undervalued. Its lack of strenuousness, its detachment from 
workaday interests, its severance from ethical agitations, its re- 
moteness from the common toils and experiences, have given to it 
many an unreal and spectral aspect ; there has seemed to be in it 
a lack of seriousness which has robbed it of spiritual significance. 
Its limitations in several directions are evident enough ; but all 
our poetry has disclosed marked limitations. The difficulty in 
estimating Poe's work at its true value has lain in the fact that 
his seriousness was expressed in devotion to objects not yet in- 
cluded in our range of keen and quick sympathies and interests. 
Poe was a pioneer in a region not yet adequately represented on 
our spiritual charts. To men engrossed in the work of making 
homes for themselves the creation of a Venus of Melos might 
seem a very unimportant affair ; its perfection of pose and mould- 
ing might not wholly escape them, but the emotion which swept 
Heine out of himself when he first stood before it would seem to 



52 POE MEMORIAL. 

such men hysterical and unreal. When the homes were built, 
however, and men were housed in them, they would begin to crave 
completeness of life, and then the imagination would begin to dis- 
cern the priceless value of the statue which has survived the days 
when gods appeared on the earth. The turmoil of the struggle 
for existence in Greece has long since died into the all-devouring 
silence, but that broken figure remains to thrill and inspire a 
world which has forgotten the name of the man who breathed the 
breath of life into it. It is a visible symbol not only of the pas- 
sion for perfection, but of the sublime inference of that passion — 
the immortality of the spirit which (ionceived, and of the race 
among which the perfect work was born. 

This passion, which is always striving to realize its own imper- 
ishableness in the perfection of its work, and to continue the 
unbroken record of creative activity among men, possessed Poe in 
his best moments, and bore fruit in his imaginative work. He 
was far in advance of the civilization in which he lived, in his 
discernment of the value of beauty of men struggling for their 
lives in a world full of ugliness because full of all manner of 
imperfection ; he is still in advance of any general development of 
the ability to feel as he felt the inward necessity of finding har- 
mony, and giving it reality to the mind, the eye, and the ear. In 
older communities,^ looking at our life outside the circle of its 
immediate needs and tasks, he has found a recognition often denied 
him among his own people. If Poe has failed to touch us in cer- 
tain places where we live most deeply and passionately, we have 
failed to meet him where he lived deeply and passionately. Mat- 
thew Arnold held that contemporary foreign opinion of a writer is 
probably the nearest approach which can be made to the judgment 
of posterity. The judgment of English, French, and German 
critics has been, as a whole, unanimous in accepting Poe at a much 
higher valuation than has been placed upon him at home, where 
Lowell's touch-and-go reference in the Fable for Critics has too 
often been accepted as an authoritative and final opinion from the 
highest literary tribunal. 

The men of Lowell's generation in Xew England could not 



I'OE MEMORIAL. 53 

have estimated adequately the quality of Poe's genius nor the 
value of his work. Their conception of their art was high and 
their practice of it fruitful, but their temper of mind threw them 
out of sympathy with the view of art which Poe held, and which 
has been illustrated in much of the most enchanting poetry in the 
literature of the world. The masters of pure song, with whom 
Poe belongs, could hardly have drawn breath in the rarefied air of 
the New England of the first four decades. It was an atmosphere 
in which Emerson breathed freely, and the purity and insight of 
his work, like that of Hawthorne's, will remain an enduring evi- 
dence that intense moral conviction and deep moral feeling are 
consistent with a true and beautiful art. But Keats could not 
have lived in the air which Emerson found so full of inspiration ; 
and Keats is one of the poets of the century. This is only saying 
that if you have one quality in a very high stage of development, 
you are likely to be defective in other qualities equally important. 
A national literature must have many notes, and Poe struck some 
which in pure melodic quality had not been heard before. As lit- 
erary interests broaden in this country, and the provincial point 
of view gives place to the national, the American estimate of Poe 
will approach more nearly the foreign estimate. That estimate 
was based mainly on a recognition of Poe's artistic quality and of 
the marked individuality of his work. Lowell and Longfellow 
continued the old literary traditions ; Poe seemed to make a new 
tradition. The damionic element in him, the pure individual 
force, brought with it that sense of freshness and originality which 
men are always eager to feel, and to which they often respond 
with exaggerated cordiality. It is not surprising that those who 
are full of the passion to create, and rarely endowed with tiie 
power, sometimes go too far in rewarding the man who does what 
they long to do, but cannot. The artist always pushes back the 
boundaries a little, and opens a window here and there through 
which the imagination looks out upon the world of which it 
dreams so gloriously, but which it sees so rarely; and we are not 
prone to mete out with mathematical exactness our praise of those 
who set us free. If we lose our heads for a time when Kipling • 



54 POE MEMORIAL. 

comes with his vital touch, his passionate interest in living things, 
the harm is not great. Poe may have been overvalued by some 
of his eager French and German disciples, but, after all deductions 
are made, their judgment was nearer the mark than ours has been ; 
and it was nearer the mark because their conception of literature 
was more inclusive and adequate. 

The nature of Poe's material has had something to do not only 
with foreign appreciation of his genius, but with the impression of 
distinct individuality which his work produces. Sprung from a 
people of naturally optimistic temper, with unbounded confidence 
in their ability to deal with the problems of life, Poe stands soli- 
tary among men of his class in fastening, as by instinct, upon the 
sombre and tragical aspects of experience. In the high light 
which rests upon the New World, the mysterious gloom which 
enshrouds The Fall of the House of Usher, The Lady Ligeia, and 
Ulalume is thrown into more impressive relief. Against the wide 
content and peaceful domesticity of this fruitful continent, the 
story of Berenice, The Assignation, and The Masque of the Red 
Death are projected with telling eifectiveness. The very limita- 
tions of Poe's interests and insight contribute to the definiteness 
and striking individuality of his work. One finds in it no trace 
of that vague generalizing tendency which an English critic has 
recently called the "Alexandrine note" in American literature; 
on the contrary, every touch contributes to the sharp distinctness 
of the whole. 

The severance between the writer and his surroundings, already 
noted, is constantly brought home to the reader by the subjects, 
the persons, and the landscapes which appear in Poe's work. 
Tragedy in Shakespeare's historical plays is felt to be unusual 
and exceptional ; it belongs to a few periods, it is wrought out in 
the careers of small groups of persons ; but it is in no sense ab- 
normal ; it readily relates itself to English character and society. 
The tragic element in Scott and Dickens has the same natural 
setting, the same normal relationship to obvious social or political 
conditions. The tragic element in Poe's work, on the other hand, 
lies deep in the recesses of individual temperament, and seems 



POE MEMORIAL. 55 

remote, unreal, and fantastic, unless we approach it sympathetic- 
ally. Some of it is unreal and phantasmal; but the potentialities 
of Poe's tragedy are in most men. They are, however, essentially 
subjective ; for the action in Poe's stories is really symbolical ; 
that which is significant and appalling lies behind it. At this 
point Poe and Hawthorne approach each other, and it is the pure 
subjectivity of the tragedy which gives its working out at the 
hands of both writers a touch of remoteness, and in some cases an 
element of unreality. 

Poe, like Hawthorne, gives expression to the ideality of 
the American mind : an ideality disclosed in very different 
ways by Emerson and Lowell and Whittier; an ideality which 
has made our literature pure and high, but has robbed it so far of 
a certain robustness and power shared by all the great writers of 
our language beyond the sea. American literature, as contrasted 
with other literature, is touched throughout with aspiration, but 
lacks solidity and passion. These defects in Poe's work, which 
are often regarded as peculiar to it, are found in the work of his 
contemporaries. It would seem as if, so far, the imagination of 
the country had not been adequate to the task of penetrating and 
illuminating its immense practical energies ; or as if its activities 
were too vast and varied to admit of imaginative coordination at 
this early day in our history. Poe reacted so radically from the 
practical ideals and work of his time that he took refuge in pure 
ideality. The refuge of the artist is always to be found in his 
art; and to a nature so sensitive as Poe's, a mind so delicately 
adjusted to its tools and its task, and so easily thrown out of rela- 
tion to them, there was perhaps no other resource. Between the 
art of the author of Israfel and the life about him there was a 
deep abyss, which the poet never attempted to cross. The mate- 
rial with which he constantly dealt becomes significant alike of 
the extraordinary susceptibility of his genius, and of the lack of 
the forms of life about him to satisfy and inspire him. He ex- 
presses the dissonance which has so far existed between the essen- 
tially ideal quality of the American mind and the intensely 
practical character of the task which has fallen to Americans. 



56 POE MEMORIAL. 

If he had been born a century later, his verse and prose might 
have come closer to the heart of his people, without losing that 
exquisite fineness which reveals the rare and beautiful quality of 
his genius. It is hardly possible to miss the significance of the 
fact that two men of such temper and gifts as Hawthorne and 
Poe were driven by inward necessity to deal with the life of an 
earlier time, with life in an older and riper society, or with the 
life of the spirit in its most disturbed and abnormal experiences. 
Sucli a fact throws a penetrating light on the delicacy of the ad- 
justments between a genius of great sensitiveness and its environ- 
ment, and sets at naught the judgment, so often and so hastily 
reached, that the American mind is essentially materiali'^tic. That 
judgment is impeached by the whole body of our literature, but 
Poe and Hawthorne made it absolutely untenable. 

Poe's daemonic force, his passion for perfection of form, his 
ideality, and the sensitiveness of his temperament are all subtly 
combined in the quality of distinction which characterizes his best 
work in prose and verse. His individuality is not only strongly 
marked, but it is expressed with the utmost refinement of feeling 
and of touch. In his prose and verse, Poe was preeminently a 
man who not only brought artistic integrity and capacity to his 
work, but suffused it with purity, dignity, and grace. In the dis- 
connected product of his broken life there is not a line to be 
blotted out on the score of vulgarity, lack of reticence, or even 
commonplaceness. In his most careless imaginative writing the 
high quality of his mind is always apparent. So ingrained is this 
distinction of tone that, however he may waste his moral fortunes, 
his genius is never cheapened nor stained. In his worst estate 
the great traditions of art were safe in his hands. 

The quality of distinction was of immense importance in a 
literature like our own, which is still in its formative stages. 
Poe's exquisite craftsmanship has made the acceptance of cheap 
and careless work impossible. Such work may secure an easy 
popularity from time to time, but it can find no lodgment in the 
memory of the race on this continent. To go so far as Poe went 
toward perfection of form is to exclude from the contest all save 



POE MEMORIAL. 57 

the fleetest and the strongest. It is to do more, for the service of 
the artist really begins when his work is completely finished, and 
separated from his own personality : it is to keep before a people 
tempted to keep lower views of life the reality of individual 
superiority. In a society which holds all the doors open, and 
affirms in institution and structure that a man shall aro where he 
can, there is always the danger of confusing opportunity with 
gift. The final justification of democracy lies in its ability to 
clear the way for superiority ; but it is often interpreted as sig- 
nifying equality of endowment and skill. If, in the long run, 
democracy lowers instead of advancing the standards of character 
and achievement, it will be the most disastrous of political fail- 
ures. Equality of opportunity for the sake of preparing the way 
for the highest and finest individualities will bring us, perhaps, as 
near a perfect social order as we can hope to attain. Poe was such 
a personality; a man whose gifts were of the most individual kind, 
whose tastes were fastidious, whose genius was full of a distinction 
which involved and expressed remoteness from average standards, 
detachment from the rush and turmoil of practical tasks. A 
nation at work with grimed hands is a noble spectacle ; but if 
such a people is to get anything out of life after it has secured 
comfortable conditions, it must not only make room for poets and 
scholars and thinkers, but it must reserve for them its highest 
rewards. 

Without the presence of the superior man, the " paradise of the 
average man," as this country has been called, would become a 
purgatory to all those who care chiefly, not for success, but for 
freedom and power and beauty. One of the greatest privileges of 
the average man is to recognize and honor the superior man, 
because the superior man makes it worth while to belong to the 
race by giving life a dignity and splendor which constitute a com- 
mon capital for all who live. The respect paid to men like 
Washington and Lincoln, Marshall and Lee, Poe and Hawthorne, 
affords a true measure of civilization in a community. Such men 
invest life for the average man with romance and beauty. Failure 
to recognize and honor superiority of character, gift, and achieve- 



58 POE MEMORIAL. 

ment is the peculiar peril of democracies, which often confuse the 
aristocracy of the diviue order in the world with the aristocracy 
of arbitrary and artificial origin. So long as the saints shine in 
their righteousness it will be idle to attempt to conceal their supe- 
riority; in the order of the spiritual life the best survive. Of 
these best was Poe ; a man whose faults are sufficiently obvious, 
because they bore their fruit in his career, but the quality of whose 
genius and art was of the finest, if not of the greatest. In express- 
ing the idealism of the American mind, this rare and subtle work- 
man made images of such exquisite shape and moulding that by 
their very perfection they win us away from lesser and meaner 
ways of work. By the fineness of his craftsmanship he revealed 
the artistic potentialities of the American spirit. 

Of a proud and sensitive nature, reared among a proud and 
sensitive people, Poe found in the region of pure ideality the 
material which expressed most clearly his genius, and received 
most perfectly the impress of his craftsmanship. In the themes 
with which he dealt, and in the manner in which he treated them, 
he went far to eradicate the provincialism of taste which was the 
bane of his time and section — the bane, indeed, of the whole 
country. Poe's very detachment in artistic interest from the 
world about him was a positive gain for the emancipation of the 
imagination of the young country, so recently a province of the 
Old World. His criticism was almost entirely free from that 
narrow localism which values a writer because he belongs to a 
section, and not because his work belongs to literature. He 
brought into the field of criticism large knowledge of the best that 
had been done in literature, and clear perception of the principles 
of the art of writing. His touch on his contemporaries who won 
the easy successes which are always within reach in untrained 
communities was often caustic, as it had need to be ; but the 
instinct which made him the enemy of inferior work gave him also 
the power of recognizing the work of the artist, even when it came 
from unknown hands. He discerned the reality of imagination 
in Hawthorne and Tennyson as clearly as he saw the vulgarity 
and crudity of much of the popular writing of his time. By criti- 



POE MEMORIAL. 59 

cal intention, therefore, as well as by virtue of the possession of 
genius, which is never provincial, Poe emancipated himself, and 
went far to emancipate American literature, from the narrow 
spirit, the partial judgment, and the inferior standards of a people 
not yet familiar with the best that has been thought and said in 
the world. To the claims of local pride he opposed the sovereign 
claims of art ; against the practice of the half-inspired and the 
wholly untrained he set the practice of the masters. When the 
intellectual history of the country is written he will appear as one 
of its foremost liberators. 

Poe's work holds a first place in our literature, not by reason of 
its mass, its reality, its range, its spiritual or ethical significance, 
but by reason of its complete and beautiful individuality, the dis- 
tinction of its form and workmanship, the purity of its art. With 
Hawthorne he shares the primacy among all who have enriched 
our literature with prose or verse ; but, unlike his great contempo- 
rary, he has had to wait long for adequate and just recognition. 
His time of waiting is not yet over ; for while the ethical insight 
of Hawthorne finds quick response where his artistic power alone 
would fail to move, Poe must be content with the suffrages of 
those who know that the art which he practiced with such magical 
effect is in itself a kind of righteousness. " 1 could not afford to 
spare from my circle," wrote Emerson to a friend, " a poet, so 
long as he can offer so indisputable a token as a good poem of his 
relation to what is highest in being." To those who understand 
that character is never perfect until it is harmonious, and truth 
never finally revealed until it is beautiful, Poe's significance is not 
obscured nor his work dimmed by the faults and misfortunes of 
his life. The obvious lessons of that pathetic career have been 
well learned ; it is time to seek the deeper things for which this 
fatally endowed spirit stood; for the light is more than the 
medium through which it shines. 



60 ~ POE MEMOEIAL. 



MEMORIAL POEM 



BY ROBERT BURNS WILSON. 



On account of the unavoidable absence of the poet, Mr. Robert 
Burns Wilson, of Frankfort, Ky., the following poem, written 
for the occasion, was excellently rendered by Mr. Willoughby 
Reade, of the Episcopal High School : 

Clotlied with the flame immortal is that soul, 
A flame that flashed amid the midnight shadows, 
Veiled by the chilly gloom of mists and clouds; 
A flame that wavered but was never quenched, 
Whose light shines on with steady glow, undimmed, 
Despite the darkness and the vexing storms 
Through which his spirit passed. 

Though love was his — 
Love gentle and consoling, stricken he walked. 
An alien on the earth, with scornful lips, 
Cursing or praying in his poverty. 
Fencing amidst the hatred of his foes — 
Fighting with his one weapon, which for his mood, 
Was either wand or dagger, his keen pen. 
Goaded to frenzy by the spawn of fools. 
The world's pets ever, fretted beyond control 
In his unceasing battle with the dull 
Complacency of mediocrity, 
Wildly he struck at times, but oftener 
His pen point pierced the mark. 

His faults were such 
As thousands live and die with, unobserved. 
But, being his faults, because of his mind's light. 
They loomed like towers upon a sunset hill. 
Broken upon the wheel of his misfortunes. 
Toiling, alone, where life's dark pathway leads 
Close by the steep and treacherous brink of hell. 
Haunted by spectres, vexed by easeless griefs. 
His soul went down to death, in loneliness, 
A death too pitiful for aught save silence. 
Too mournful in its wretchedness for tears. 



POE MEMORIAL. Gl 

But not with death he dwells. Above his dust 
Time's slow impartial hand has made for him 
A shaft, memorial, builded of the stones 
Which Hate and Envy cast upon his grave. 
He dwells not with the shadows. They no more 
Have power upon him, leaguing on his path 
To threaten and mislead. They cannot touch 
The undying lire that wraps him. Far above 
The fitful flaws and passions of the world, 
Borne by the wings of his own eagle thought. 
Serene and undisturbed his soul finds rest 
Within his splendid palace of the clouds. 

With this poem the morning exercises were concluded. 



62 POE MEMORIAL. 



THE EVENING EXERCISES. 



TO the invitations sent to distinguished men of letters at a 
distance came many responses, some expressing regrets, 
others accepting, and a far larger number sending some tribute 
to Poe or congratulations upon the auspicious occasion. It was 
deemed appropriate that representatives of the guests present 
should be requested to take some part in the evening exercises, 
and that the contents of these interesting letters should, as far as 
time allowed, be made known. 

The committee, therefore, arranged for a kind of Poe Sympo- 
sium in the evening, and the following programme was carried 
out : 

Keading, in part or in full, of letters. Mr. W. K. Abbot, Prof. W. 

M. Thornton, and Dr. Charles W. Kent. 
Beading of Father Tabb's Poetic Tribute. .Mr. Willoughby A. Keade. 

Kecitation of Poe's Israfel Mr. Willoughby A. Reade. 

Informal Remarks Col. T. E. Davis. 

Recitation and Explanation of The Raven Mr. Wm. Fearing Gill. 

Remarks on Poe's Last Days Mr. E. R. Reynolds. 

As it was impossible at the time to read many of the letters, 
advantage is gladly taken of this opportunity to make in one form 
or another due record of them all, 

LETTERS IN FULL OR IN EXTRACT. 

I am grateful for the invitation. I regret that I am unable to be with you 

to join personally in this fitting act of homage to the great genius whose name 

now shines so bright in all the civilized world. 

Moses Coit Tyler. 



The occasion cannot fail to be one of great interest, and, beside the enjoy- 
ment that I should derive from the exercises of the day, I should be glad to 
express by my presence my admiration for the genius of Poe. 

C. E. Everett. 






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POE MEMORIAL. 63 

109 Gkeat Portland St., London, W., Sept. 28. 

Dear Sir — Obviously, as I am living here now, I cannot accept your kind 
invitation. But I appreciate the honor which it confers, and tender you for it 
my warm thanks. Very faithfully, 

To Chas. W. Kent, Esq. Edgar Fawcett. 



I regret being compelled to decline the invitation to the unveiling of the Poe 
bust, at the University, on the 7th proximo. The Ellis family had a personal 
relation to Edgar A. Poe. My father, Charles Ellis, was the partner and inti- 
mate friend of Mr. John Allan, who adopted Poe, and at one time Mr. and Mrs. 
Allan and Edgar resided in my father's house for about a year. This was in 
1819. My uncle. Judge Powhatan Ellis, who was U. S. Senator from Mississippi, 
gave Poe his appointment to West Point. 

Powhatan Ellis. 



It would give me great pleasure to accept the invitation of the Association 
and by my presence at the unveiling of Zolnay's bust of Edgar Allan Poe on the 
7th of October to testify to the appreciation so universally felt (in my native 
State, New York, and in the State where I have recently presided for nine years 
over Amherst College, in Massachusetts) for the brilliant genius of the master 
of romantic prose and of the weird power of poetic rhythm whose memory you 
honor. I greatly regret that an engagement to speak in another State on that 
day compels me to decline. Merrill E. Gates. 

Dear Sir — The occasion which your Association will celebrate on the 7tli is 
to me one of peculiar interest and significance. Few, I fancy, will be present at 
that festival who can recall, as I do, the effect of the first publication of the 
poem which flamed like a meteor across our literary heavens and made the name 
of Poe immediately famous. When a boy in the backwoods of western New 
York, I saw "The Raven " in one of the hundred of country papers in which it 
was almost simultaneously copied, and recognized at once that a new genius had 
arisen to divide the homage I paid to Byron, my prime favorite in those early 
days. Anything connected with the name of Poe interested me intensely from 
that time ; and though I never met him, I felt a shock of personal bereavement 
when his tragic death occurred, in 1849. Then, it was thought by some, a 
meteor of a night-time had burned itself out in space. But the genius of Poe 
was no meteor ; it was a star of peculiar brilliancy, from which the mists of 
doubt and misunderstanding have parted more and more, and which still shows 
no signs of fading, amidst the brightest luminaries of our sky. 

It is most fitting that the anniversary of the poet's death should be celebrated 
duly, and it would give me great pleasure to be present at the unveiling of the 
bust by your Association, but distance compels me to forego that satisfaction. 

John Townsend Trowbridge. 



But let me express a heartfelt interest in this movement in the University to 
do honor to her poets and men of letters. C. W. Coleman. 



64 POE MEMORIAL. 

Williamsburg, Va., Oct. 6, 1899. 
Dear Sib — In behalf of tlie President and Professors, or Masters, of the Col- 
lege of William and Maiy, in Virginia, I desire to express my earnest hope that 
the occasion of the nnveiling of tlie bust of Edgar A. Poe will be a most brilliant 
one in tlie history of your great University. He undoubtedly ranks as the 
most original poet in the history of the United States. When the poems of 
nearly all others are forgotten, his will continue to be read ages to come. He 
was worthy of the Universityj and the University was worthy of him. 

Truly yours, 

Lyon G. Tyler, 
President of the College of William and Mary, in Virginia. 

To Dr. BuTringer, Chairman of the Faculty. 



Cambridge, Maps., Oct. 6, 1899. 
Charles W. Kent, Esq.: 

Dear Sir — I regret that absence from home has made me tardy in acknowl- 
edging your kind invitation. W^hen a boy of seventeen, in Harvard College, I 
read Poe's " Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque." It was just after the pub- 
lication of the book and before it had attracted general attention ; but I felt it 
at once to be the most remarkable production of the imaginative genius of this 
nation, save the works of Hawthorne alone ; nor have I ever varied from that 
opinion. Later I heard Poe read his " Ligeia," before an audience in Boston, 
in a voice whose singular music I have never heard equalled. These two early 
impressions sustained my admiration and gratitude for Poe through all his 
stormy and sad career ; and I again thank you for doing me the honor of an 
invitation to be present at the unveiling of his bust. 

I am, dear sir. Very respectfully yours, 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 



Your courteous invitation for the 7th of October came to New Haven during 
my tempoi'ary absence, or I should sooner have expressed to you my regrets at 
being unable to assist in doing honor to the memory of one whose rare genius 
has made his work the admiration of the world. 

Don. G. Mitchell. 



3 St. Edmund's Terrace, Kegent's Park, N. W. 
London, 19 Oct., 1899. 
Dear Sir — I have just received the invitation card with which you favored 
me for the unveiling, on the 7th of October, of Zolnay's bust of Edgar Poe. 
Of course you see that the dates would not have admitted of my attending, even 
had that been possible on other grounds. 

Most heartily do I thank you for the comijlimentary act. My brother Dante 
Gabriel and myself must have been among the earliest readers of Poe's Raven 



POE MEMORIAL. 65 

when first that classical bird reached the English shore, and how many and 
many times did we not re-peruse it, and (more especially my brother) recite it! 
Then came scores of other glorious things upon which we battened; we supped 
full, indeed, of horrors in Arthur Gordon Pym, not to speak of The Black Cat, 
The INIurders in the Rue Morgue, &c., &c. Possibly you may be aware tliat an 
English edition of Poe's Poems (James Hannay's edition) was dedicated to 
Dante Gabriel Eossetti. 

Perhaps I ought scarcely to have intruded upon you this intimation of the 
not important fact that Edgar Poe was one of the glories of our youth. Im- 
portant it is that the American people should be aware that he is one of the 
permanent glories of their race, and that they should have given evidence of 
their feeling by forming the Association of which you were privileged to be 
President. 

Honour to Edgar Poe — the early and deservedly admired in two continents, 
yet none the less the lowly maligned. 

Believe me, dear sir, gratefully and faithfully yours, 

W. M. Eossetti. 



I deeply regret that from the fact of old age (82 years) and sickeness, that I 
cannot be present at the unveiling of the Poe bust in the University of Virginia. 
I believe that I am the only person living who personally knew the great 
Poet, and it is with great pleasure that I have received your invitation to the 
unveiling of the Memorial, which, in every respect, cannot do him too much 
honor, and alike reflects great credit on those of the Association concerned in 
the matter. 

Gabriel Harrison. 



Mr. Clinton Scollard presents his compliments to the Poe Memorial Associa- 
tion of the University of Virginia, and deeply regrets that it will not be possible 
for him to be present upon October the Seventh, at the unveiling of the bust to 
Poe, whom all true lovers of song delight to honor. 



It is with unfeigned regret that I nuist tell you that circumstances force me 
to deny myself the pleasure of being present to do honor to our famous Southern 
poet, for whom I have always felt the greatest admiration. In my early girl- 
hood, in Fairfax county, I listened often to anecdotes of Poe and praises of his 
character from the loving lips of Mrs. Clemm — this lady living then in Alexan- 
dria, as a guest in the home of my mother's most intimate friend. 

Kate Mason Eowland. 



It is most fitting that the name and fame of Poe should be thus honored at 
the University of Virginia, though such a recognition has been delayed more 
than half a century. He was Southern in ancestrv and cliaracteristics ; his birth 



66 POE xMEMORIAL, 

at Boston was accidental ; and while he unquestionably made a permanent con- 
tribution to the world's literature, he found a personal gratification in the boast 
that he was a Virginian. 

Boston's own "Autocrat," writing in 1875, said that Poe was " one of the few 
names which will outlive the graven record meant to perpetuate its remem- 
brance." Tennyson is quoted as stating, some fifteen years before his death, 
that any wish he might have to visit America would be prompted by the desire 
to stand with bared head by the grave of Poe at Baltimore. 

Poe is perhaps more widely known and appreciated in Europe to-day than 
any other American writer, among either the dead or the living. The Quantin 
edition (Paris, 1884) of Baudelaire's translations, "Histoires Extraordinaires " 
and "Nouvelles Histoires Extraordinaires," remains to this time the most pre- 
tentious dress with which the writings of any American have been honored 
abroad. 

Poe and Lanier will be briglit, fixed stars, in American literature, when 
many of the New England constellations shall liave become obscured and for- 
gotten. EoBEET Lee Traylor. 

Mr. Laurence Hutton begs to thank the members of the Poe Memorial Asso- 
ciation of the University of Virginia for the courtesy of their invitation, and 
to express his regrets that his engagements will prevent his presence at the 
unveiling of the bust of the American Man of Letters whom he most delights 
to honor. 



With the earnest wish that October 7th may be in every respect a pleasant 
and memorable day in the annals of your University, . . . 

S. H. Trumbull. 



Kegarded throughout Europe as the greatest and most original man of genius 
that our country has produced, Poe's reputation has been strangely obscured by 
a host of minor celebrities in his native land, and I am glad that in our own 
University at least his claims will be properly recognized and honored. The 
Coleridge of America, his wonderful gifts have been too long undervalued. 
When we consider the position of Hawthorne in American literature we cannot 
but see that the South, while not indifferent to the claims of such sons, does not 
bear them before her perpetually on their shields, while trumpets loudly pro- 
claim their achievements in the endless fanfaronnades of books, magazines, 
newspapers, literary societies and clubs, after the manner of New England. Poe, 
Hayne, Lanier, are still caviare to the general American reader, and it has been 
left to the distinguished critics of England and the continent to set them with 

their own poets of the first rank. 

Frances Courtenay Baylor. 



It would be pleasant to me to unite with my fellow alumni and students in 
doing honor to an eminent son of the University, and I am sorry that I shall be 
unable to be present. C. H. Toy'. 



POE MEMORIAL, 67 

Plans already made will preclude the possibility of my being with you in tiie 
flesh — as I surely will be in tlie spirit — on the occasion of the unveiling, Octo- 
ber 7. " T. C. DeLeon. 



Thanks for your kind invitation to be present at the unveiling of Zolnay's 
bust of Edgar Allan Poe, in the Library of the University of Virginia, on the 
fiftieth anniversary of his death, which occurred October 7, 1849. 

My acquaintance with Poe began in New York sixty years ago. Our Ijoard- 
ing houses were opposite each other in East Broadway. T had just entered upon 
my duties as Principal of Eutgers Female Institute. Mr. Poe was writing for 
the New York papers and making a very scanty living. He soon after moved 
to Fordham, where I called to see him. He was holding a loaf of bread, and 
said, "Here is all the food I have in the world for myself and family." He was 
almost in a state of despair. I did what I could to cheer him, assuring him 
there was something of good in life for him. 

In 1845 he served as chairman of a committee to examine the compositions 
of the collegiate department of my institution and award the gold medal to the 
writer of the prize composition, which he read at the sixth commencement of 
the Institute. 

In regard to the bust which is soon' to be unveiled, Mr. Zolnay has been very 
successful. He had never seen Poe, and had to depend upon the portraits of 
the etching needle and the photographic lens. 

Charles E. West. 



. . I regret this extremely, for it would give me great satisfaction to 
testify by my personal presence my appreciation of the efforts made by your 
association to honor the memory of the poet. 

John Prentiss Poe. 



Virginia honors herself in her gratitude to one of our greatest imaginative 
poets. If it is much to have great sons, it is more to recognize their greatness. 

Alice French. 



I regret my inability to be present at the unveiling of the Poe bust on Octo- 
ber 7. I would gladly do honor to his memory. He had a purer and higher 
art than any other writer of his time in this country. 

John Burroughs. 



The University is doing a gracious act in thus handing down to future gen- 
erations the lineaments of one who has exerted an undying influence on litera- 
ture. If the intellectual and aesthetic development of a people is the standard 
of progress, then has Poe done more for his country tlian her armies and loco- 
motives. 

Again expressing my sincere regret that I am denied the pleasure of being 
present at the unveiling of the bust of the most original literary genius America 
has yet produced, ... H. L. Flash. 



68 POE MEMORIAL. 

I remember with keen pleasure the Poe evening at which I was present 
nearly two years ago, and therefore regret all the more that I cannot be with 
you on the 7th. W. H. Milburn. 



I deeply regret that I cannot have the pleasure and honor of attending the 
ceremonies at the unveiling of the bust of Edgar Poe. His memory is dear to 
every American man of letters. Thomas Bailey Albrich. 



It is gratifying to every Southerner that the fame of Poe is yearly more and 

more widened. 

E. A. Brock. 



Were it possible I would most gladly accept this invitation. ... A half 

century has passed since the death of our poet and romancer, and no man has 

appeared who is worthy to stand, beside him in his chosen field of literature. 

His maligners make his sky very dark, but the stars of his intellect — and they 

are many — shine all the brighter. 

Frank E. Stockton. 



At the request of your Association, I had the pleasure of inspecting, with 
my colleague. Professor Woodberry, Mr. Zolnay's admirable work as it ap- 
proached completion. We tested it by comparison with all the known likenesses 
of its subject, and, after the sculptor's additional touches, it seemed to us a 
somewhat idealized, but noble and not untruthful portrait of your great South- 
ern poet, critic, and romancer. Permit me, then, to congratulate your Associa- 
tion upon the outcome of your loyal effort to place a lasting and artistic memo- 
rial in the University to which the author of ' ' The Haimted Palace, " " The 
Eaven," and " Ligeia" unquestionably owed so much, and which in turn justly 
finds increase of eminence from the growth and i^erpetuation of his fame. 

It was in recognition of this indissoluble bond between the man of letters and 
his alma mater that the editors of what was meant to be the most accurate and 
inclusive setting forth of Poe's life and writings dedicated their edition to the 
University of Virginia — well assured, no less, that in this wise they might gain 
for it a certain honor and authority. 

Edmund Clarence Stedman. 



I hope that you will convey to the Committee of the Association my sense of 
the honor which they have conferred on me in inviting me to be present upon 
so auspicious an occasion, and also an expression of the fervent veneration in 
which I hold the noble poet to whom you are rendering this fitting tribute, a 
poet nearer, indeed, to the hearts of Virginia, but not dearer to you than to all 
other true lovers of poetry. Felix E. Schelling. 



POE MEMORIAL. 69 

It would be most delightful to me if I could accept your invitation to be 
present at the unveiling of the bust of Edgar Allan Poe, but it appears to be 
impossible. I had hoped that the Shakespeare Society of New York would 
have taken the initiative and erected the first statue; and that the City of Bal- 
timore would have been the second to place in bronze the form and features of 
the first American poet. 

But, as you have distanced both of us, I congratulate you, and I believe that 
in fifty years every one of our national Walhallas will have followed your dis- 
tinguished example and have raised a statue to the memory of this illustrious 
alumnus of your University, who first attracted the attention of Europe to the 
fact that an American literature, which should not be mere servile imitation 
and copy of European literatures, was possible, and was, in him, a fact. 

Whatever laurels the memory of Edgar Allan Poe may share with the mem- 
ory of his fellow-countrymen who have written words that the world shall not 
willingly let die, this, at least, is secure. And the late Laureate of England 
was, I think, one of the first to concede, as surely he was one of the last to 
remind us, that Edgar Allan Poe first, in jjoint of time, commanded the atten- 
tion of European criticism to a distinct and original American literary product. 

Appleton Morgan. 



It is an honor as well as a pleasure to be asked to come to the University of 
Virginia. But, unfortunately, my duties at the Brick Church, which are 
resumed next Sunday, are imperative, and will prevent my coming to take part 
in the proposed tribute to the genius of Poe. Henry Van Dyke. 



Every friend of American letters must rejoice in such a worthy recognition 
of the genius and talents of Edgar Allan Poe, whose name ever rises higher 
among those who have honored their country by literary achievement. 

W. I. Fletcher. 



Poe was the foremost of American melodists, and his high literary Avork is 
worthy of all the honor that can be bestowed upon him by American men of 
letters. A. K. Spofford. 



My regret is the greater since the memorial is in the dear honor of one whom 
I hold to be, not only one of my favorite writers, but immeasurably the truest 
of American poets. Ellen Glasgow. 

In honoring the memory of the distinguished men in literature the Univer- 
sity is ennobling one of the arts of civilization that has been too long neglected 
in the South. W. H. W. Moran. 



While the occasion is one which enlists my warmest sympathies, owing to 
the high estimate that I place upon Poe as a poet, and the desire I have always 
had to see the famous University of Virginia, yet I am constrained to forego the 
pleasui'e of attending the unveiling. Chas. de Kay. 



70 POE MEMORIAL. 

I have the honor to acknowledge tlie receipt of your kind invitation to l)e 
present at the unveiling of Mr. Zolnay's bust of Edgar Allan Poe in the Library 
of the University of Virginia on the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death. 
It would give me great pleasure to be able to share in so interesting a ceremony, 
and pav my tribute of respect to the memory of one of our greatest men of 
letters; but I have made engagements for that date from which it is not possible 
to free myself. I am, therefore, not able to avail myself of your courtesy. 

John Hay. 



It is eminently projjcr that there should Ije a statue of Poe at the University 
of Virginia, of which he was such a distinguished alumnus. Let us hope that 
statues of other illustrious alumni will soon be gathered around that of the 
author of "The Kaven." Alcee Fortier. 



The event you celebrate is a significant one, and it is most fitting that your 
Association should perform this service. It is a service in which all will be 
interested and for which all will be grateful. William R. Harper. 



To witness the unveiling of a tribute to our greatest American jwet by the 

historic and venerable University of Virginia, is a privilege which no one of 

Southern birth can fail to prize. 

Catherine Pearson Woods. 

I hope the time will come when the Rotunda will be a gallery of statues and 
busts of our distinguished men. W. G. Stanard. 



I am glad that honor is being given where honor is due, and hope a large 
niunber will attest by their presence that the great writer, though dead, still 
lives in the hearts of the people. Belle R. Harrison. 

I regret this the more because I am a great admirer of his writings, and still 
mourn his early death, at the moment when his developed power and native 
genius were ready in their curiously yet strictly logical art, to startle and win 
the admiration of the world by works even more worthy of him, and to the 
greater honor of Virginia, than those he has left to immortalize his name. 

W. C. Elam. 



I need not remind you that poems of mine have not been wanting, to lionor 
the memory of Poe. I wish that I could tell you to depend on me for still 
another trilnite to the genius of that extraordinary and most unfortunate man. 
I deeply sympathize with the purpose of the University, and I thank you for 
the honor of the invitation, and for your kind remembrance of me. 

The most distinctive poetical genius that America has produced. 

William Winter. 



POE MEMORIAL. 71 

I rejoice with the Association, their friends, and indeed the whole country, 
on so interesting an occasion as the proposed ceremonies in memory of that 
l)rilliant meteor, Edgar Alhm Poe. Edward B. Pollard. 



I am sorry I am too far away to attend, but glad that you have been able and 
willing to do this honor to a representative American poet. 

EicHARD Burton. 



Did circumstances allow, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to take 
part in doing honor to the illustrious poet. James K. Hosmer. 



I congratulate the Univei'sity upon the commemoration of our gi-eatest 
Southern poet and greatest American literary genius. 

F. C. Woodward. 



It would be a great pleasure to me to unite with you in doing honor to a 
genius I have long admired. Archibald C. Gunter. 



I consider it the most interesting occasion I have known in the history of the 
University in the department of letters, and T congratulate you most heartily 
upon its inception and happy consummation. 

John Bell Henneman. 



Mr. Justice Harlan would be glad to testify his respect for the memory of the 
dead poet and his interest in the prosperity of the University. 

I have all my life been a lover of Poe, and believe that he did something for 
literature not only excellent, but of a rare quality, adding to our poetry some- 
thing more fresh and more poetic and to our prose a vivid imaginative motive. 
Accordingly I rejoice in all that keeps Edgar Allan Poe in memory. 

Ellen Olney Kirk. 



The editors of East and West thank the University of Virginia for its courte- 
ous invitation, which they regret they are not able to accept. They wish, how- 
ever, to express their deep appreciation of the honor done them in being asked 
to attend a ceremony in commemoration of one of the greatest American poets 
at a University which is so intimately connected with the history of our country. 



It is a fitting tribute to America's greatest poet that his adopted State should 
thus do honor to his transcendent genius. I venture to hope that in process of 
time other great Virginians may receive similar honor, and that the beautiful 
University Library may, like Westminster Abbey, be adorned and hallowed by 
memorials of our noble dead. Supan P. Lee. 



72 POE MEMORIAL. 

The memorial which you offer to Poe must be as grateful to his spirit as it 

will be useful to his fame. 

Chas. Leonard Moore. 



. . . You must, however, accept my sincerest good wishes for the happy 
success of so memorable au event. It is an occasion which ought to stir the 
lyric mood of Poe's unAvorthy successors ; but he wouhl be a bold man to attempt 
any occasional verse on that subject after .John Boner's matchless poem on Poe. 

Bliss Carman. 



I think we have come to understand that our American literature has in it 

two names that, beyond cavil and dispute, are the names of literary artists of 

transcendent skill and charm. However the "wind of doctrine" may beat 

about other names, Poe and Hawthorne are secure. The spites and fears that 

were excited by Poe during his brief and l)rilliant period liave an enduring life, 

and there are those still living who perhaps felt the sting of Poe's genius for 

satire and who detest his memory. Where, as in France, the critic Poe is 

unknown, Poe the man of genius has undergone a singular apotheosis. And 

therefore all the more I am moved to repeat what I have elsewhere repeated, 

that in his long illness and weariness Mr. George E. Graham, who knew Poe 

long and intimately, assured me that he had never had occasion to rebuke Poe, 

or to find fault with him as editor, author, or friend, in all the years of their 

association. 

Albert H. Smyth. 



1 may possibly be with you — I cannot speak with certainty — but in any event 
1 shall be with you in spirit, and predict an assured success for the occasion. I 
have been a devotee of Poe from my boyhood, and my memorial addresses have 
been reproduced in all lands in which our literature is regarded as a source of 

culture and inspiration. 

Henry E. Shepherd. 



1 am very sorry that I cannot do myself the pleasure of witnessing the honor 

done to the great American poet. 

J. A. Lefevre. 



I believe that it will not be long before Poe is acknowledged on all hands to 
be the most original and versatile literary genius America has produced, as well 
as the most influential in point of artistic form. But, even were this consum- 
mation not so near, the University would still owe it to lierself to honor in every 
way her greatest alunmns. ' W. P. Trent. 



I rejoice extremely in the event, for surely the South ought to begin at last 
to show worthy honor to her poets. And she is awaking to this sacred duty to 
them and to herself. . . . With the hope that the occasion will prove all 
that its friends can wish, and will have a far-reaching effect on other sections 
and schools, . . . Louise Manly. 



POE MEMORIAL. 73 

I am glad that the University is tlius to lienor both herself and the great 
poet who died a half-century ago, and I take the fact as one of a good many 
recent indications that Poe is not only a "living subject," but that his hold 
upon the best critical thought of the day is growing rather than declining. For 
my own part, I have always been of his champions against unjust aspersion and 
belittlement. William Morton Payne. 



Personal hobble and misconstruction of Poe's faults and weakness has so 
often in late years taken the place of appreciation of his work that it is time 
for those who love literature to emphasize the other side. . . . Hoping and 
believing that the occasion may and will be felicitous, . 

Arlo Bates. 



1 am a great admirer of Poe's genius, and have always protested indignantly 
against the calumnies which those who feared and envied him while living 
heaped upon his memory when his death assured their impunity. The Univer- 
sity has honored lierself in thus honoring her gifted son. 

Wm. Hand Browne. 



I am very glad that your University has done this honor to tlie memory of 
Poe. The Poe Memorial Association has already done service to literature by 
its investigations, and now crowns its work with this tribute. 

Francis H. Stoddard. 



I should like to be present to witness the ceremonial and still more to testify 
my gratification at the acquisition by the University of this fitting memorial of 
a son, whose literary fame has grown steadily in the half century since his 
death, and who seems now safely enrolled among the great names of American 
literature. Wm. L. Wilson. 



Since my youth I have been an ardent admirer of the Poet, and an enthu- 
siastic student of his wonderful writings. 

Eugene L. Didier. 



If it were in my power I should go, for I reverence the genius of Poe. 

Hannis Taylor. 



. . . So I send you my sincere regrets in not being able to particijiate in 
the event which is to be so honorable to the Poe Memorial Association. . . . 
Hoping, and not doubting, that your exercises will be what you expect, and 
every way worthy of the notable occasion, I am, &c., 

Joel Benton. 



74 POE MEMORIAL. 

In response to your request of the 21st inst., I will state, that my personal 
acquaintance with Edgar A. Poe was so limited — and, indeed, fragmentary — 
and it is now so long ago, that I fear my memory will fail to furnish any impor- 
tant recollections of the poet. But I may at least add, that my conviction of 
his presence insjaired me with the evidence of his being a man of genius, yet 
without pretension. This conviction was confirmed by subsequent interviews 
with him, and especially when reading "The Raven," Avhich — like Coleridge's 
"Ancient Mariner" — is now of such world-wide fame. I first met Poe when 
conducting the agency of Messrs. Saunders & Otley, publishers, of London, for 
the reproduction in New York of their own publications, and also to seek the 
enactment of an international copyright treaty with Great Britain. At that 
time I had the pleasure of the friendship and the kindly aid and support of the 
enterprise by Washington Irving, Bryant, Willis, Everett, Henry Clay, and 
others of the literary profession. It was then that Poe called occasionally at 
my office, and I found his personnel and deportment always genial and gentle, 
and his conversation usually of a literary tone. 

Frederick Saunders. 



The Memorial Association in this latest recognition of genius, unappreciated 
when the poet was among the living, will find a welcoming response in the 
hearts of all in all lands who cherish the memory of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Sara S. Eice. 



Mr. F. J. Stimson regrets his inability to be present at the unveiling of the 
bust of Poe by the Poe Memorial Association at the University of Virginia, 
October 7th, and hopes the nine lines, beginning ' ' O Israf el, if I could dwell, ' ' 
will be inscribed, if anything, as typical of Poe's life, rather than the common- 
place mis-quotation on the New York statue. 



I have always been a great Poe enthusiast, claiming that no other American 
writer of verse was as original as he; and only one other American writer of 
fiction surpassed him, and that one Hawthorne. It was a pretty hard task for 
me to attempt to sum up in four lines such a versatile genius as Edgar Allan 
Poe, but I ti'ied it; and, thinking that it might interest you, I copy it herewith: 

POE. 

Night's raven o'er its portal and day's dove, 
Wild witch-lights haunt an old-world sculptured tomb ; 

Beside the corpse of beauty and of love 
Song's everlasting-lamp burns in the gloom. 

Madison J. Cavv^ein. 



Yours, asking me to tlie unveiling of the gi-eat poet's bust, finds me in San 
Francisco, en route, as usual. I can only say I shall be there in the spirit. My 
work calls for my presence in the far Northwest, but I shall think of you and 



POE JHEMORIAL. 75 

yours on the 7tli of October. You are huildinja: wisely. That land that has no 
poets has no lasting place in history. Babylon, Nineveh, they stoned the 
prophets, and where are they? But for the poets round about Jerusalem their 
very names were not. Jerusalem is but a small place comparatively, yet is she 
more than all the Orient because she cherished and revered the poets. This 
is history, this is equity, this is poetic justice. 

Joaquin Miller. 



If ever man had music in his soul, that man was Poe. For him rhyme's 
river rippled and thought's billows beat. He enriched the world's literature, 
and his sad, sweet life, with its shade and shine, a poem fashioned by a hand 
divine. Robert Loveman. 



The career of Poe as a writer came in the earlier years of my professional 
life, and I suppose I read everything published by him. I still look over my 
shoulder with a shiver of horror when I think of the " P^all of the House of 
Usher," and no day passes without his "Bells" ringing their chimes in my 
memorv. A. D. Mayo. 



I should have had nnich pleasure in attending and helping to do honor to 
the memory and worth of one of America's greatest poets. 

J. L. M. CUHRY. 



From my early youth I have been almost an idolater of the genius of Edgar 
A. Poe. George Dunlop. 



I have only good wishes to express for the exercises, and hope they may in 
every way prove worthy of the great poet whose memory they are intended to 
cherish. E. S. Turk. 



It would give me great pleasure, especially as I am and have been all my life 
an admirer of Edgar Poe, but it will not be possible for me to come to Virginia 
at the time you mention. Wm. T. Harris. 

Dear Sir — I wrote you a year or two ago of my appreciation of Poe's genius 
and position in letters. The same holds to-day; but now again it is impossible 
for me to attend, though I so much desire to do so. 

Gratefully, faithfully yours, Poe's and the South' s, 

Jas. Wood Davidson. 



I am delighted that at last our greatest American genius is to be honored 
thus in the University in which he wa« never dishonored, Griswold el als. to the 
contrary notwithstanding. Poe was something truly wonderful. Hawthorne 



76 POE MEMORIAL. 

and others toiled witli prentice hand to learn and perfect their art, but Poe 
comes before us with his six "Tales of the Folio Club," stories well-nigh per- 
fect, and yet brings us no hint as to where his hand acquired its cunning. With 
no school of criticism at hand, he created one. You honor yourselves in honor- 
ing him. S. A. Link. 



No honors are too great for such a rare genius at a time when, in literature, 
we are levelling to mediocrity. 

Austin Bierbower. 



I am a great admirer of the writings of Poe, and should like to join in the 
becoming honors you are about to pay to his memory. I had a slight acquaint- 
ance with him in life, and with many regrets I shall be compelled to be absent 
on the occasion which recalls him to the memory of the living. 

K. T. DURRETT. 



As I have not forgotten my old-time acquaintance with that gifted poet, 
therefore I regard with sympathetic interest the worthy tribute to his memory 
by friends of his native State. Frederick Saunders. 

As an admirer of Poe it would have given me great pleasure to join in doing 
honor to his memory. John Kendrick Bangs. 

It would afford me much pleasure to manifest my appreciation of the imique 
genius of Edgar Allan Poe, and my sympathy with the pride in which the 
University of Virginia so justly holds his great and enduring work. 

Mary N. Murfree. 



You must feel a great satisfaction in this consummation of your efforts to do 
honor to the memory of our Southern poet. 

A. H. Merrill. 



It is certainly a pleasing thought to me that one so deserving of honor is at 
length receiving his due from his countrymen. 

Fred. Lewis Pattee. 



Although I cannot be present, I can rejoice in this fresh interest in a truly 
great poet — one who has long been loved by me, despite his faults and failures, 
and one of whose name and fame your LTniversity may justly be proud. 

E. L. Powell. 

I regret that I cannot be present at an occasion of so much interest and pay 
my little tribute to the greatest literary artist of the South. 

Henry S. Pancoast. 



POE MEMORIAL. 77 

I am in receipt of your invitation to assist in the unveiling of tlie bust of 
Poe. In reply thereto, perniit me to say that it is my present hope to l)e with 
you on that occasion and to help the Poe Memorial Association with my pres- 
ence in doing honor to America's greatest genius in poetics. 

G. L. SwiGGETT. 



I beg to congratulate your Association and the University on the completion 
of this fitting memorial of tlie greatest literary genius of his country. May it 
stand, in one sense, as our protest against the calumnies so long current that 
would belittle his name and his work. 

Chas. Poindexter. 



You and your colleagues deserve the gratitude of all admirers of the great 
poet whose memory you so fittingly preserve. I hope that the example that 
you and your University have set will lead to a renewed interest in Poe and 
other Southern writers. 

Edwin Mims. 



I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your hospitable invitation, as 
Edgar Allan Poe is very dear to me. 

Wallace Bruce. 



The Shelburne, Atlantic City, Oct. 10, 1899. 
My Dear Dr. Kent: 

Just a line to say that since I wrote my letter to you, for the Poe ceremonies, 
on the 5th, your letter of October 2d has been forwarded to me by my secretary 
from my home at Bronxville. Its kind expressions serve to increase my regret 
that I was disabled and could not be with you on the 7th ; but much must be 
forgiven to a sick man whose sixty-sixth birthday was the 8th, as it chanced. 

I well remember learning of Poe's death as soon as the news could get north, 
after my sixteenth birthday. Had just become a freshman at Yale, but had 
read then the poems and the "Tales of the Arabesque," etc., and didn't I 
preach Poe to all those fellows of the ' ' class of ' 53 ! " 

Yes, marry, and by the same token I imitated him, too ; but little thought 
to be his editor half a century later. 

Am glad to see from the Baltimore papers that the affair went off so effect- 
ively, and I hope soon to read your address in full somewhere. All the pro- 
ceedings should appear in the next Critic. 

Sincerely yours, 

Edmund C. Stedman. 



Every ceremonial event commemorative of genius ought to be an inspiration 
to study, to work, to strenuous effort ; and it is gratifying to see that while our 
people magnify the heroic deeds of men of action, they will not ignore nor neg- 



78 POE MEMORIAL. 

lect the memory of those who were great in thought, in invention or in any of 
the arts of expression. 

The secure judgment of the world ranks Poe very high in more than one lit- 
erary art ; measured by the thought and achievement of this present century, he 
was a master of rhythm and a pioneer in the modern art of short -story telling. 

I can only express my deeply felt regret for inability to be present on this 
notable occasion. 

Clifford A. Lanier. 



I rejoice to know that the genius of Poe, so long apparently homeless in 
his own country, will be visibly honored by this perpetual memorial in the Uni- 
versity that bred him, and I hope that successive generations of students 
there may feel its influence in devoting them to literary fame and attaching 
them to poetry and sentiment and the things of the imagination and of 
romance, and in inspiring them to work for American distinction in letters. So 
considerable a part of my own time and labor has been given to an attempt to 
set forth adequately Poe's contribution to our national literature, and to do due 
honor to his work, that this tribute to him must be peculiarly pleasant to me, 
and I sincerely regret my inability to be present when the bust is unveiled. 

Geo. E. Woodberry. 



I would like by my presence to join in a tribute to the first and purest genius 

of American poets. Virginia and her University cannot do too much honor 

to the singer whom they gave to the world. 

Beverley D. Tucker. 



A Virginian glories in seeing how, after the apathy of years, there comes 
into our University life at last this enkindling of enthusiasm for the poet, whose 
name, filling now the world, gives its special lustre to the home of his own 
youthful studies. It is plain, now that the time of snarling is over, and that a 
jnst oblivion is sinking down both over the critics that attacked Poe's reputa- 
tion and the school of poets that they sought to build up and glorify. Our 
University claims in Poe the one poet that the world has recognized as great 
among us Americans; and this new bust will speak to every generation of stu- 
dents of the final glory which comes, in spite of all malice and all silliness, to 
the man that seeks and attains the utterance of a perfect art. I am heartily 

sorry that I cannot be with you. 

Thos. E. Price. 



It is eminently fitting that the University of Virginia should commemorate 
the fiftieth anniversary of Poe's death, and thus emphasize to the world her 
pride in being the Alma Mater of so rare a genius. 

William H. Hayne. 



POE MEMORIAL. 79 

There is surely no genuine lover of literature anywliere who will not rejoice 
in the honor you are conferring upon Poe's memory. 

Bliss Perry. 



Only a few days ago, in reading Lord Tennyson's (Hallam) memoirs of his 
father, I noticed that Alfred Tennyson gave Poe the place of the first among 
American poets. I think you are doing a great and beneficent work in direct- 
ing the attention of the youtli of the South to literature. Too long have poli- 
tics and business engrossed them, and it is surely high time that a word should 
be spoken for literature and art. 

Molly Elliot Seawell. 



TO EDGAR ALLAN POE. 



ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH. 



Dead fifty years ? Not so. 
Nay, fifty years ago, 
Death, Obloquy, and Spite, 
To curse his ashes, came. 
But, lo, the living light. 
Beneath the breath of shame 
Indignant, spurned the niglit, 
And withered them in flame. 

John B. Tabb. 

This poem was effectively read by Mr. Willoughby Reade. 



80 



POE MEMORIAL. 



By request, Mr. Reade recited with excellent taste and skill 
Poe's Israfel. 

Letters of regret or acceptance were also received from the fol- 
lowing: : 



S. Z. Animen, 
Edward A. Allen, 
Waitman Barbe, 
W. S. Currell, 
H. S. Edwards, 
A. S. Hardy, 
T. E. Lounsbury, 
A. K. McClure, 
Carl Mann, 
Albert Shaw, 
M. E. M. Davis, 
Geo. S. Duncan, 
Sara S. Eice, 
H. J. Stockard, 
E. C. Valentine, 



Dr. James B. Ayer, 

Dr. J. Mount Bleyer, 

Winston Churchill, 

Mary M. Coleman, 

J. B. Gilder, 

E. U. .Johnson, 

S. S. McClure, 

Mrs. J. H. Marr, 

Polk ]\Iiller, 

Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Piatt, 

Andrew Downing, 

AV. F. Gill, 

Maud Howard Peterson, 

W. W. Scott, 

Marcus .J. Wright, 



Marcus B. Allmond, 
F. F. Browne, 
Stephen Crane, 

C. O'B. Cowardin, 

D. C. Gilman, 
Andrew S. Kerr, 

J. Moellenhoff, Munich, 
B. B. Minor, 
Eosewell Page, 
William Sartain, 
Col. T. E. Davis, 
A. C. Gordon, 
Chevalier Eeynolds, 
Marguerite Tracy, 
Eich'd Weightman. 



There were many visitors from a distance, notably a number of 
representatives of newspapers, who honored the occasion by their 
presence. 

After some informal but interesting remarks by Colonel T. E. 
Davis, of the New Orleans Picayune, Mr. William Fearing Gill, 
of New York, was introduced, 

Mr. Gill is the author of a Life of Poe and has been a devoted 
student of his writings for many years. He essayed the explana- 
tion of "The Raven/' which he recited with effect, calling atten- 
tion, among other things, to the interesting fact that the germ 
of the poem was perhaps traceable to Poe's life while at the 
University. 

The last speaker of the evening was Chevalier E. R. Reynolds, 
of Washington, D. C, whose subject was "The Death of Poe." 
As there was at the time some misunderstanding on the part of 



POE MEMORIAL. 81 

the audience as to the conclusions reached by Mr. Reynolds, he 
has kindly furnished us with a written abstract of his remarks, the 
substance of which is here given : 

The belief that Poe died as the result of an attack of delirium 
tremens is based upon a statement made by Dr. Moran to the 
Rev. W. T. D. Clemm on the morning after Poe's death. How 
little stress can be placed on this statement is shown by the fact 
that, in a lecture delivered in 1882, Dr. Moran flatly contradicts 
himself by declaring that "the poet showed unmistakable evi- 
dences of having been drugged." In fact, neither of these state- 
ments can be relied upon. On the one hand, Poe could not have 
had delirium tremens, even in its mildest form, for the simple 
reason that the incubative period was too brief, as evidenced by 
our knowledge of the poet's movements at this time ; on the other, 
there is no proof whatever that Poe was drugged, and, had such 
been the case, it is strange that Dr. Moran did not mention it to 
Dr. Clemm on the morning after the poet's death, nor on any 
other morning during the years in which both resided in Balti- 
more. The real fact is, that Poe's death was due to natural 
causes. His shocking exposure, when thinly clad, to the low 
temperature of a frosty October night could have killed a strong 
man, much less one of his frail and exquisitely delicate structure. 
Furthermore, Dr. J. F. C. Hadel, Health Commissioner, an- 
nounces in his official report for Sunday, October 8th, three 
deaths, one from congestion of the brain and the others from 
cerebral inflammation, the first referring to Poe, as is shown by a 
letter from Neilson Poe to Mrs. Clemm, the poet's mother-in-law. 
That the alcohol verdict was unhesitatingly accepted by the 
American press of the day is due to the fact that such notices 
of the poet's death as appeared were based either upon the first 
announcement in the Baltimore 8u7i — in which the delirium 
tremens theory was accepted as a vague and easy way of account- 
ing for his death — or upon Griswold's malignant screed in the 
New York Evening Tribune. That Poe's death did not arouse 
great sympathy and sorrow appears to have been due, in part, to 
his shortcomings as a friend and his vigor as an enemy, and in 



82 POE MEMORIAL. 

part to the fact that neither the American press nor the American 
people could recognize his phenomenal worth because " they had 
no national standard by which to compare him" or measure his 
strikingly characteristic gifts. 

Omitting the numerous newspaper accounts of the exercises 
and the appreciative tributes paid by them to all who were in any 
wise responsible for the success of the occasion, w^e oifer no apol- 
ogy for reproducing in conclusion this poem, written for the Uni- 
versity of Virginia Magazine : 







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IN THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS. 
{Near CharlottesviUe, Va.) 



Hush ! In these hills 

How silence thrills ! 

The breathless trees of forests old 

Scatter autumnal gold, 

In yellow leaves and ember-red, 

( Burning with memories scarce dead ) 

That float and flutter to the ground — 

Fancy but feels a ghost of sound. 

All's hushed and dim as Lethe. Though 

The wild-fowl and the crow 

Give startling voice, they pass and leave 

A deeper silence round. 

The spell-hung forests do not grieve, 

But listless-lovely like despair 

Lulled with vague tuned dreams, are fair 

In the forlornness of their moods. 

They might be immemorial woods. 

Muse-haunted, east in Italy, 

By the Adriatic sea. 

Cloud like and strange 

Yon distant range. 

Looming along the horizon' s verge, 

Where skies and storms and mountains merge. 

Gloom upon gloom, dark thunder-blue. 

Anon with radiance bursting through 

Intense as heaven, sombre-grand. 

And flooding all the land 

With fearful splendor. Ere 'tis gone. 

Sudden from out the black pines pierce. 

With aspect grim and fierce, 

Lit cliffs of blood-red stone. 

But in the wild brake here 
What presence seems so near ? 
Did these shades whisper ever so, 
In spirit words intense and low, 

* These beautiful lines, written by Mr. Henry Tyrrell, editor of Frank Leslie's 
Monthly, during his visit to Charlottesville, were sent by him to Dr. Chas. W. Kent, 
for exclusive publication in the Magazine. It is with many thanks to the author 
that we give them to our readers.— Ed. 



84 POE MEMORIAL. 

Since earthly time began ? 
Or caught they something human, warm, 
Remembrances of sigh and storm 
Waked in the heart of man ? 

This wilderness could never so 

Have thrilled and trembled but to know 

In every hill and tree and stone, 

That through these tangled ways. 

In other autumn days, 

Silent, remote, proud, mystic, lone. 

The pensive dreamer, Edgar Poe, 

Passed, seven decades ago. 

A sunken tarn, with baleful eye, 
Up-gazes to the sky; 
Myrtle, nightshade, and grasses tall 
Are silver-misted, one and all. 
And in the morning hung anew 
With glistening pearls of dew, 
Eobbed not by the roving breeze — 
Tears, that the world ne'er sees. 
October 7, 1899. Henry Tykrell. 



APPENDIX. 




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APPENDIX I. 



SESSION OF 1826. 

Rector: Thomas Jefferson, to July 4, 1826. 
James Madison, October 2, 1826. 

Vkitors : Thomas Jefferson, 
James Madison, 
Chapman Johnson, 
Joseph C. Cabell, 
James Breckinridge, 
John H. Cocke, 
George Loyall, 
James Monroe. 

Secretary to (he Board : Nicholas P. Trist. 

Chairman of the Faculty : Dr. Robley Dunglison. 

Secretary of the Faculty: Dr. John P. Emmet. 

Pi'ofessors: George Long — Ancient Languages. 

George Blaetterman — Modern Languages. 

Charles Bonnycastle — Natural Philosophy. 

John P. Emmet — Chemistry. 

George Tucker — Moral Philosopliy. 

Robley Dunglison — Medicine. 

Francis Walker Gilmer — Law. [Died in 1826, before 

entering upon his duties. ] 
John Taylor Lomax — Law. [From Spring 1826.] 

InMruttor : William Matthews — Military Tactics and Drill. 

Librarian: William Wertenbaker. 

Proctor: Mr. Brockenborough. 

Hotel-keepers: Richardson, Chapman, Spottswood, Gray, Minor, and 
Conway. 

Janitor: J. Brockman. 



APPENDIX 



MATRICULATION OF THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

VIRGINIA— 1826. 

Tlie matriculation Ijook is ruled in seven columns. The first is marked 
" Entered 1826," and in this column is put the month and day of matriculation. 
The second column contains names of students; the third, date of birth; fourth, 
parent or guardian; fifth, place of residence of tlie student, parent, or guardian. 
The sixth is headed "Professors attended," and this column is subdivided, the 
subdivisions being given to Long, Blaetterman, Key, Bonnycastle, Emmet, 
Dunglison, Tucker, and "Law Professor." In each of these subdivisions a 
pen stroke indicates whether a given student was a member of this particular 
professor's class. The seventh column is entitled "Remarks." For the infor- 
mation of those to whom this matriculation-book is not accessible there follows 
a list of the students of 1826 in the order of their matriculation: 



February 1st. 
John Gary. 

William E. Cunningham. 
Henry L. Davis. 
William A. Crichton. 
Henry H. Worthington. 
William Wertenbaker. 
Tazewell Taylor. 
Robert Blow. 
Henry L. Allmand. 
Paul A. Clay. 
Turner Dixon. 
William Aylett. 
John Walker Waller. 
Henry Shackleford. 
Robert Yates. 
Joseph W. Chalmers. 
Chas. E. Dade. 
Thomas H. Nelson. 
William N. Wellford. 
William McC. Burwell. 
Hugh Pleasants. 
Thos. Swann. 
Albert L. HoUoday. 
Richard Brown. 
Frederick Brown. 
Geo. T. M. Long. 
Robert Carter. 



Richard Garland. 

Henry A. Tayloe. 

Wm. Seawell. 

Thos. Pemberton. 

Wm. W. Michie. 

Wm. S. Daniel. 

Thos. S. Gholson. 
February 2d. 

Benj. H. Magruder. 

Wm. V. Loving. 
February 3d. 

Archibald Glenn. 

Travis H. Epes. 

Sam'l Robinson. 

Oscar F. D. Bower. 

James A. Clarke. 

Chas. Peyton. 

Thos. J. Boyd. 

Edward T. Harrison. 

Gessner Harrison. 

Henry Tutwiler. 

Patrick Aylett. 

John T. Wormeley. 

Reubin Newman. 

Berthin Jones. 

Levingston Lindsay. 

Joel E. Mathews. 

Simpson Fouche. 



APPENDIX. 



89 



Henry E. Coleman. 
Miles George. 
James S. French. 
Febnim-y 4th. 

Richard Stuart. 
Chas. C. Lewis. 
John Lyle. 
Eobert L. Kennon. 
Chapman Johnson. 
Jos. S. Watson. 
John B. Garrett. 
Thomas Goode Tucker. 
Orlando Fairfax. 
Lewis Harvie. 
Chas. B. Calvert. 
Edward G. Crump. 
Arthur H. H. Bernard. 
Robert Wallace. 
Robert Scott. 
Wm. H. Newsum. 
Wilson C. Newsum. 
Lewis F. Douglass. 
Richard Akin. 
John Wall. 
Henry Clagett. 
Chas. Shreve. 
February 6th. 

John Temple. 
Wm. M. Murphy. 
George F. Chew. 

John A. Carter. 

Sam'l Smith. 

John Preston. 

Wm. L. Cabell. 

Geo. Teackle. 

Edmond W. Hubard. 

James M. Smith. 

Wm. H. Clarke. 

Wm. Selden. 

Benedict Crump. 

John B. Magruder. 

Wm. E. Allen. 

Wilson C. Swann. 

Z. C. Lee. 

John H. Hilleary. 

Philip L. Lightfoot. 

Robert W. Thomas. 

Thomas Miller. 



February 7th. 
Wm. Cross. 
Robert R. Collier. 
John H. Walker. 
Arthur R. Smith. 
John S. Turner. 
Charles Preston. 
Jerman Baker. 
Wm. H. Haxall. 
Charles T. Botts. 
Wm. F. Gray. 
February 8th. 

G. W. Lewis. 
Wm. Emmet. 
Alexander Henderson. 
John Hansbrough. 
Benj'n F. Randolph. 
Lewis Randolph. 
Febriuiry 9th. 

Philip Slaughter. 
Wm. D. Sims. 

Geo. W. Johnscm. 
James M. Huston. 
John Willis. 
February 10th. 

Robert Taylor. 

Sidney A. Perry. 

Ebenezer Zane. 
February 13th. 

Nathaniel Dunn. 

Thomas Barclay. 

Philip St.G. Ambler. 

Emanuel I. Miller. 

Upton Beall. 

John L. Labranch. 

Euphemon Labranch. 

Thos. Boiling. 
February 14th. 

Wm. W. Shriver. 

Charles F. Urquhart. 

St. George T. Coalter. 

John H. Waring. 

Edgar A. Poe. 
February 15th. 

Conway R. Nutt. 

T. Jefferson White. 

Wm. A. Spottswood. 
Hamilton Loughborough. 



90 



APPENDIX. 



February 17 th. 

Benjamin Anderson. 
February '20th. 

Burwell Starke. 

Wm. N. Whiting. 

Collin M. Clarke. 

Charles T. Beale. 
*George B. Skellern. 
February 32d. 

Robert M. Forbes. 
February 23d. 

William H. Meriwether. 
February 24th. 

William E. Taylor. 
February 25th. 

William T. Maclin. 
February 27th. 

Hugh Minor. 

Nathaniel D. Ellis. 

James Harding. 
March 7th. 

Eobt. I\I. T. Hunter. , 
3Iarch 8th. 

Anselm B. Urqiihart. 
March Uih. 

Edwin C. Drummond. 

Isaac Medley, Jr. 
March 20th. 

Charles T. Taylor. 
March 28th. 

Wilson C. Nelson. 

Charles A. Lewis. 



March 30th. 

Geo. W. McCulloch. 
April 3d. 

Chas. Wickliffe. 

Mann A. Page. 
April 5th. 

Abraham Barnes Mason. 
April 6th. 

John Wesley Vick. 
April 11th. 

Sterling F. Edmunds. 
April 19th. 

George M. Graham. 

John P. Wilkox. 
April 21st. 

Charles Patton. 
May 3d. 

Algernon Sidney Brown. 
3Iay 9th. 

Henry T. Dixon. 
May 11th. 

George E. Hoffman. 
May 20th. 

Edgar Mason. 
June 5th. 

John H. Sotlioron. 
July 13th. 

Samuel A. Townes. 
Jidy 19th. 

Richard Baylor. 
July 26th. 

Charles Tayloe. 



Close of the second session in Decendjer, 1826. Number of each school sec- 
ond session: Long, 107; Blaetterman, 90; Key, 98; Bonnycastle, 43; Emmet, 
45; Dunglison, 16; Tucker, 28; Lomax, 26 — 177 students. 



* So spelled In Matriculation Book. See Semi-Centennial Catalogue of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia. 



APPENDIX 



POE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION. 

(At the time of the Unveiling) 

Founded April 13, 1897. 

OFFICERS. 

President: Dr. C. W. Kent. 
Vice-President : W. A. Clark, Jr. 
Hon. Vice-Presidents : Bisliop O. P. Fitzgerald. 
Dr. B. L. Gildersleeve. 
Secretary: Dr. Jas. A. Harrison. 
Treasurer: J. W. Hunter, Jr. 

MEMBERS. 

Abbot, F. H. Dawson, E. Heard, J. L. 

Abbot, C. M. Dickinson, M. B. Heneberger, A. S. 

Downer, J. W. Holland, C. G. 

Duke, Judge E.T.W., Jr. Huger, W. E., Jr. 

Dunkle, O. Hume, F. N. 
Hunt, W. H. 

Edwards, P. H. Hunter, J. W., Jr. 

Ellis, Col. Thos. H. Hutcheson, J. C. 



Baillio, G. 
Barnwell, N. B. 
Barringer, Dr. P. B. 
Beckwith, J. I\. 
Blair, L. H. 
Bonner, M. L. 
Bonney, J. L. V. 
Bosher, R. S., Jr. 
Bradsbaw, S. E. 
Brank, E. S. 
Brodnax, J. M. 
Buck, G. M. 

Carter, Col. T. H. 
Chamberlayne, L. P. 
Chapman, J. H. 
Clark, W. A., Jr. 
Clay, B. J. 
Cocke, M. E. 
Comer, G. L., .Jr. 
Crook, M. 
Crimmins, M. J. 

Dame, W. P. 
Davis, Dr. J. S. 
Davis, Prof. N. K. 



Foster, J. G. 
Furniss, H. D. 

Garnett, J. M., Jr. 
Garnett, T. S., Jr. 
Gary, Hampson. 
Gaskins, J. D. 
Garland, H. A. 
Godfrey, E. S. 
Goodrich, F. A. 
Gordon, J. L. 
Grace, E. L. 
Graves, Prof. C. A. 

Hairston, W. H. 
Halff, M. L. 
Harrison, G. 
Harrison, Dr. Jas. A. 
Harrison, W. H. 
Haynes, F. M. 



Johnston, F. 
Jordan, P. B. 
Joynes, Prof. E. S. 

Kent, Dr. C. W. 
Kent, Mr. H. T. 
Kittridge, D. W. 
Knox, K. H. 

Lee, E. J. 
Loeb, L. 
Liggin, S. B. 
Lile, Prof. W. M. 
Lilliston, A. H. 
Long, C. M. 

Mallet, Dr. J. W. 
Mathewson, W. W. 
McCartney, T. B., Jr. 
McCloskey, J. J. 



92 



POE MEMORIAL. 



McNair, W. I. 
Merrill, Prof. A. H. 
Miller, A. I. 
Miller, Mr. Polk. 
Minor, Prof. R. C. 
Moomaw, B. C. 
Morrison, A. J. 
Murfee, W. L. 

Nelson, E. C. 
Nininger, M. L. 

Oast, J. W., Jr. 
O'Brien, S. M. 
Old, E. H. H. 

Peery, H. J. 
Persinger, D. W. 
Peters, Col. W. E. 
Portner, A. O. 
Price, Prof. Tlios. R. 
Prince, J. B. 

Ramsey, F. G. 
Read, B. J. 
Reade, W. A. 



Rhett, A. B. 
Richardson, R. R. 
Roach, E. 
Robb, R. G. 
Robinson, M. P. 
Rogers, E. R. 
Rogers, G. F. 
Rogers, R. L. 

Scott, W. C, Jr. 
Shaffer, E. M. 
Sliannonhouse, W. T. 
Sinnnes, T. H. 
Smith, Prof. F. H. 
Smith, J. P., Jr. 
Stroud, A. T. 
Stuart, W. H. 
Swartz, M. W. 
Swift, H. II. 

Templeton, G. M. 
Thorn, Mr. DeC. W. 
Thornton, Prof. W. M. 
Til ley, M. P. 
Toney, R. B. 
Tnnstall, R. B. 



Tuttle, Prof. A. H. 
Turner, J. A. 

Van der Horst, A. 

V. V. V. Dramatic Club. 

Walke, L. T. 
Walke, R. A. 
Walker, J. C. 
White, J. J. 
White, L. M. 
White, R. M. 
Wilson, G. 
Winston, J. E. 
Wise, Dr. J. O. 
Williams, L. C. 
Williams, R. G. 
Williams, W. B. 
Wolff, H. D. 
Woodward, E. L. 
Wright, C. C. 
Wright, R. H. 

Young, Rev. C. A. 



Ushers who served at the unveiling exercises : 



C. C. Wright. 
H. D. Wolff. 
H. H. Bonner. 



M. E. Cocke. 
M. B. Dickinson. 



M. W. Swartz. 
J. L. Heard. 



APPENDIX IV. 



THE POE LIBRARY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 

American and English Editions. 

1838* — The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket, North Amer- 
ica: comprising the Details of a Mutiny, Famine, and Shipwreck, during 
a Voyage to the South Seas; resulting in Various Extraordinary Adven- 
tures and Discoveries in the Eighty-fourth Parallel of Southern Latitude. 
London: Wiley & Putnam... Whittaker and Co.; and Charles Tilt. Lon- 
don, 1841. 

1839* — The Conchologist's First Book: A System of Testaceous Malacology, 
arranged expressly for the use of schools, in which the animals, accord- 
ing to Cuvier, are given with the shells, a great numher of new species 
added, and tlie whole brought up as accurately as possible to the present 
condition of the science. By Edgar A. Poe. Philadelphia: Haswell, 
Barrington and Haswell. Second Edition. 1840. 166 pp. 12 colored 
plates. 

1839* — The Gift: A Christmas and New Y^'ear's Present for 1840. Edited by 
Miss Leslie. Carey and Hart, Philadelphia. Contains, pp. 229-253, Poe's 
William Wilson. 

1850 — The Works op the Late Edgar Allan Poe: With Notices of his Life 
and Genius, by N. P. Willis, J. R. Lowell, and R. W. Griswold. In 
two volumes. New York: J. S. Redfield. 1850. 

1856 — The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: With a Memoir by Rufus 
Wilmot Griswold, and Notices of his Life and Genius by N. P. Willis 
and J. R. Lowell. In four volumes. Redfield, New York. 1856. 
Contents: Vol. I., Tales; II., Poems and Sketches; III., The Literati 
and Critical Essays; IV., Arthur Gordon Pym, and Miscellanies. 
Same— New York: Blakeman & Mason. 1859. (VoL IV.) 

1858 — The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: With Original Memoir 
by Charles F. Briggs. Illustrated by T. R. Pickersgill, R. A., John 
Tenniel, Birket Foster, F. O. C. Darley, Jasper Cropsey, Paul P. Duggan, 
Percival Skelton, A. M. Madot, and W. Harry Rogers. Engraved by 
Cooper, Linton, Evans, and others. With a Portrait of the Author, from 
a Daguerreotype taken shortly before his Death. London: Sampson, Low, 
Son and Co. MDCCCLVIII. 

1865 — Poems, by Edgar Allan Poe. Complete, with an Original Memoir. 
W. J. Widdleton, New York. 

1866 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. In Four Volumes. New York: 

W. J. Widdleton. 1866. [Vols. I., IIL, IV.] 
1867 — The Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. First Series. New York: 

W. J. Widdleton. 1867. 



94 POE MEMORIAL. 

1872 — The Works op Edgar Allan Poe, Including the Choicest of his Criti- 
cal Essays, from the French of C. Baudelaire [by H. Curwen]. With 
Sketches of Poe' s School near London. Portraits and Fac-similes. Lon- 
don: John Camden Hotten. 1872. 

1872*— The Bells. By Edgar Allan Poe. Presented by Tyndale and Mitchell, 
Philadelphia. 1872. 

1874-5 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by John H. Ingram 

Edinburg: Adam and Charles Black. 1874-5. 4 Vols. 

1876— Same; New York: W. J. Widdleton. 

1876 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, including Poetical and Prose Writ- 
ings. New York: W. J. Widdleton. 1876. 

1880* — Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions. By John H. 
Ingram. London: John Hogg. Vols. I., II., 1880. 2 sets, one presented 
by author. 

18911 — Same; London: Ward, Lock, Bowden and Co. (Minerva Library. ) 

1885t — The Haven. With a Literary and Historical Commentary by John H. 
Ingram. London : G. Redway. 1885. 

1886 — The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Prefatory Notice, 
Biographical and Critical. By Joseph Skipsey. London : W. Scott 
(Canterbury Poets). 1886. 

1889* — The Fall of the House of Usher, and Other Tales and Prose 
Writings of Edgar Poe. Selected and Edited, with Introduction, by 
Ernest Ehys. London : Walter Scott. 1889. 

1894 — ^The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. With an Introduction 
and a Memoir by Richard Henry Stoddard. Fordham Edition. New 
York. 1894. 6 Vols. 

1894-5— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Newly collected and edited, with 
a Memoir, Critical Introduction, and Notes, by Edmund Clarence Sted- 
man and George Edward Woodberry. The Illustrations by Albert Ed- 
ward Sterner. Chicago : Stone and Kimball. MDCCCXCIV-V. 10 Vols. 
t (Same. ) 

1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Philadelphia : J. P. Lippincott. 
1895. 8 Vols. 

1897 — Poems and Tales from the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited 
by William P. Trent. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (Riverside Lit- 
erature Series). , 1897. 

Foreign Editions. 

1876-|-— Racconti Incredibili. Milano : Tip. Edit. Lombarda. 1876. 

Igsif — Seltsame Geschichten von Edgar Allan Poe. Stuttgart (Collec- 
tion Spemann. Ur. 29). 1881. 

18821 — CONTES Grotesques. Traduction E. Hennecpun. Troisieme edition. 
Paris. 1882. 



POE MEMORIAL. 95 

1883-86t — AusGEWAEHLTE NovEi.LEN. Deutscli von J. MoUenhofT. Leipzig. 
3 Vols. 

1885t — Racconti Straordinari. Milano : Edoardo Souzogno. 1885. 

1885t — Ntrovi Eacconti Straordinarii di E. Poe. Traduzione di Rodolfo 
Arbib. Milano : Edoardo Souzogno. 1885. 

1891t — AusGEWAEiiLTE Gedichte, von Edgar Allan Poe. tjbertragen von Iled- 
wig Lachmann. Berlin : Verlag des Bibliographischen Biu'eaus. 

189'2t — AvENTURES d' Arthur Gordon Pym. Eureka. Par Edgar Poe. 
Traduction de Charles Baudelaire (Complete Works of Charles Baudel- 
aire, Vol. VII). Paris: Calmann Levy. 1892. 

1897t — CEuvres d' Edgar Poe. Calmann Levy, Editeur. Paris. 1897. 
Biographical and Critical. 

1860* — ^Edgar Poe and His Critics. By Sarah Helen Whitman. Rudd 
and Carleton, New York. 

1877*— Life of Edgar Allan Poe. By William F. Gill. C. T. Dillingham, 
New York. 1877. 

Same — jiresented by author. 

1877* — Edgar Allan Poe: A Memorial Volume. By Sara Sigourney Rice. 
Baltimore: Turnbull Bros. 1877. 

1881* — Edgar Allan Poe. By Edmund C. Stedmau. London: Samson, Low, 
Marston, Searle & Rivington. 1881. 

18811— Same. 

1883* — The Valley of Unrest: A Book Without a Woman — I^dgar Allan 
Poe. By Douglas Shirley. .John P. Morton & Company, Imprimery, 
Louisville, Ky. (Second edition. ) 

1885 — A Defense of Edgar Allan Poe. Life, Ciiaracter, and Dying Decla- 
rations of the Poet. An Official Account of his Death by his Attending 
Phyfiician, John J. Moran, M. D. Washington: Wm. F. Boogher. 1885. 

1892— Edgar Allan Poe. By George E. Woodberry. Boston: Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. American Men of Letters. 1892. 

1896 — Edgar Allan Poe. By Samuel A. Link. Nashville: Barbee and Smith 
(Pioneers of Southern Literature). 1896. 

1899t— In the Poe Circle: With Some Account of the Poe-Chivers Contro- 
versy, and Other Poe Memorabilia. By .Joel Benton. Mansfield & 
Wessels, New York. 1899. 

1899 — The Mind and Art of Poe's Poetry. By John Phelps Fruit. New 
York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1899. 

1900— On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. By S. E. Bradshaw. Richmond: 
B. F. Johnson Pub. Co. 1900. 



96 POE MEMORIAL. 

Magazine Articles in the Poe Library. 
PoE t— 

Letters, in New York — Century, 1894. 

Letters, in Pliiladelphia — Centiiry, 1894. 

Letters, in the South — Centm-y, 1894. 

Personality of — A. Yorgan — Munsey, 1897. 

Lyric Poet of America — Jas. L. Onderdonk — {Mid-Continent, 1895?). 

The New Voe— Atlantic, 1896. 

At West Point — Harper'' s New Mojithly Magazine. 

Grave of— L. K. Meekin— CnVi'c, 1898. 

Works of (review) — 1850 ? 

tObsession of— John P. Y vvni— Poet -Lore, 1900. 
Grave of — Jennie Bard Dugdale — Poet-Lore, 1899. 
His Last Hours. 

Books and pamphlets marked with an asterisk (*) were presented by Mr. E. 
R. Reynolds, of Washington; those marked with a dagger (t) are in the Har- 
rison case. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Acceptance — Letters of 80 

Aldrich, T. B.— Letter from 68 

Athletics — Poe's Record in 11-12 

Bangs, J. K. — Letter from 76 

Barringer, P. B. — Accepts Bust 37 

Bates, A. — Letter from 73 

Baylor, F. C. — Letter from 66 

Benton, J. — Letter from 73 

Bierbower, A. — Letter from 76 

Board of Visitors — Resolution of 25 

Boiling, Thomas — Testimony about Poe 13 

Bradshaw, S. E. — Presents Bust 34-36 

Brock, R. A. — Letter from 68 

Brown, W. H. — Letter from 73 

Bruce, W. — Letter from 77 

Burroughs, J. — Letter from 67 

Burton, R. — Letter from 71 

Byron — Influence on Poe 17 

Carman, Bliss — Letter from.. 72 

Cawein, M. J. — Letter from 74 

Coleman, C. W. — Letter from 63 

Curry, J. L. M. — Letter from 75 

Davidson, J. W. — Letter from 75 

DeKay, C. — Letter from 69 

De Leon, T. C. — Letter from 67 

Didier, E. L. — Letter from 73 

Dunlop, G. — Letter from 75 

Durrett, R. T. — Letter from 76 

Editors East cmd, West — Letter from 71 

Elam, W. C. — Letter from 70 

Ellis, P. — Letter from 63 

Evening Exercises 62-82 

Evening Exercises — Programme of 62 

Everett, C. E. — Letter from 62 

Fawcett, E. — Letter from 63 

Flash, H. L. — Letter from 67 

Fletcher, W. I. — Letter from 69 



98 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Fortier, A. — Letter from 70 

French, Alice — Letter from 67 

"Gaffy," Nickname applied to Poe 16 

Gates, M. E. — Letter from... 63 

George, Miles — Poe's room-mate 11 

Gill, Wm. Fearing — Recital of Haven 80 

Glasgow, Ellen — Letter from 69 

Griswold — Memoir of Poe 18 

Gunter, A. C. — Letter from 71 

Harlan, Mr. Justice — Letter from 71 

Harper, W. R. — Letter from 70 

Harris, W. T.— Letter from 75 

Harrison, B. R. — Letter from 70 

Harrison, G. — Letter from 65 

Harrison, Master J. L. — Unveils Bust 36 

Hay, John — Letter from 70 

Hayne, W. H.— Letter from... 78 

Henneman, J. B. — Letter from. 71 

Higginson, T. W. — Letter from 64 

Hosmer, J. K. — Letter from 71 

Hutton, L. — Letter from. 66 

" In the Ragged Mountains " — Poem by Tyrrell... 83 

Jefferson— Death of 20 

Kent, C. W.— Address 31-34 

Kirk, E. O.— Letter from 71 

Lanier, C. A. — Letter from 78 

Lee, S. P. — Letter from 71 

Lefevre, J. A. — Letter from 72 

Letters — Extracts from 62-80 

Letters of Acceptance or Regret 80 

Link, S. A. — Letter from 76 

Loveman, R. — Letter from 75 

Mabie, H. W. — "Poe's Place in American Literature" 38-59 

Comment on his Address 37 

Manly, L.— Letter from 72 

Matthews, Wm. — Athletic Instructor at University 12 

Maury, Jesse — Testimony about Poe 13 

Mayo, A. D. — Letter from 75 

Memorial Poem... 60-61 

Merrill, A. H.— Letter from 76 



INDEX. 99 

PAGE 

Milburn, W. H.— Letter from 68 

Minis, E.— Letter from 77 

Mitchell, D. G.— Letter from 64 

Moore, C. L. — Letter from 72 

Moran, W. H. W.— Letter from 69 

Morgan, A. — Letter from 69 

Moellenlioff, J. — Letter from 75 

Murfree, M. N.— Letter from 76 

Pancoast, H. S. — Letter from 76 

Pattee, F. L. — Letter from 76 

Payne, W. M. — Letter from 73 

Perry, B. — Letter from 79 

PoE, Edgar Allan — 

Biographers of his University Career 9 

Enters University of Virginia 10 

Li Matriculation Book 10 

His Difficulty with Miles George 11 

His Athletic Keconl 11-12 

His Interest in Military Tactics 12 

His Boom 13 

His Penmanship and Drawing 13 

His Early Literary Training 13 

His Studies at University of Virginia 13 

His Class-room Career 14 

In the University Library 14-15 

In the Ragged Mountains 15-16 

Called "Gaffy" 16 

His Apprenticeship as Story Teller.. 10 

His Early Verse 16-17 

Influence of Byron on 17 

His Interest in Debates 17 

Not an Offender against University or Civil Law 18 

His Mercurial Disposition 19 

His Dissipation at University 19 

Result of his Examinations 21 

A Witness before LTniversity Faculty , 21-22 

His Evening with Mr. Wertenbaker 22 

PoE Bust — 

Delivered at University 27 

West's Commendation of 31 

Zolnay's Oi^inion of 31 

Exercises at Unveiling of 32-61 

Poe, J. P.— Letter from 67 

Poe Memorial Alcove 25 



100 INDEX. 

PAGE 

PoE Memorial Association — 

Organized 25 

Resolutions Passed by 25 

Officers of 25 

Second Annual Meeting of 26 

Arrangement Committee of 27 

"Poe's Place in American Literature" 38-59 

Poindexter, Chas. — Letter from 77 

Poitevent, Schuyler — Investigations by 9 

Pollard, E. B.— Letter from 71 

Powell, E. L. — Letter from 70 

Price, T. R.— Letter from 78 

Ragged Mountains — Poe in 15-16 

Poem on 83 

Reade, Willoughby — 

Read Wilson's Memorial Poem 60 

Read Tabb's Poem 79 

Read "Israfel" 80 

Regret, Letters of 80 

Reynolds, E. R.— On the Death of Poe 80-82 

Gifts to the Library 93-96 

Rice, S. S. — Letter from 74 

Rossetti, W. M. — Letter from 65 

Rowland, K. M. — Letter from 05 

Saunders, F. — Letter from 74 

Letter from 76 

Schelling, F. E.— Letter from 08 

Scollard, C. — Letter from 65 

Seawell, M. E. — Letter from 79 

Shepherd, H. E. — Letter from 72 

Shirley, Douglas — Tucker's Letter to 19 

Investigations by 9 

Smyth, A. H. — Letter from 72 

Spofford, A. R. — Letter from 09 

Stanard, W. G. — Letter from 70 

Stedman, E. C. — Letter from 68 

Letter from 77 

Stimson, F. J. — Letter from 74 

Stockton, F. R. — Letter from 68 

Stoddard, F. H. — Letter from 73 

Swiggett, G. L. — Letter from 77 

Tabb, John B.— "To Edgar Allan Poe " 79 

Taylor, H. — Letter |rom , 73 



INDEX. 101 

PAGE 

"To Edgar Allan Poe" 79 

Toy, C. H.— Letter from GO 

Traylor, R. L. — Letter from G5 

Trent, W. P.— Letter from 72 

Trowbridge, J. T. — Letter from G3 

Trumbull, S. H.— Letter from G6 

Tucker, B. D. — Letter from 78 

Tucker, T. G.— Testimony about Poe 11, 14, 18, 19 

Turk, R. S.— Letter from 75 

Tyler, L. G.— Letter from G4 

Tyler, M. C— Letter from G2 

Tyrrell, II. — "In the Ragged Mountains" 83 

University of Virginia — 

Poe' s Student Days at 9-23 

First Session of 10 

Second Session of 10 

School of Antient Languages at (1826) 14 

School of Modern Languages at (1826) 14 

Library of (1826) 15 

Two Classes of Students at.. 17 

Gambling at 18 

Final Examinations at (1826) 20 

Unveiling Exercises 32-59 

Unveiling Exercises — Programme of 32 

Van Dyke, H. — Letter from G9 

Wertenbaker, Wm. — Testimony about Poe 14, 15, 19, 22 

West, C. E. — Letter from 67 

Wilson, Robert B. — Memorial Poem 60-61 

Wilson, W. L. — Letter from 73 

Winter, Wm. — Letter from 70 

Woodberry, G. E. — Letter from 78 

Woods, C. P. — Letter from 70 

Woodward, F. C. — Letter from 71 

ZoLNAY, George Julian — 

Engaged as Sculptor 26 

Sketch of his Life 28-31 

His Conception of Poe 30 

His Opinion of the Poe Bust 31 



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